Resources For

Labor-Management Relations Reports on Official Time

Overview

Section 7131 of title 5, United States Code, defines and authorizes official time for unions representing Federal employees. Official time, broadly defined, is paid time off from assigned Government duties to represent a union or its bargaining unit employees.

Labor and management are equally accountable to the taxpayer and have a shared responsibility to ensure that official time is authorized and used appropriately. To achieve greater accountability in this area, agencies report official time usage to OPM on an annual basis.

2012

Official Time Usage in the Federal Government Fiscal Year 2011 Survey Responses

Introduction

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA) includes the following Congressional finding:

(a) The Congress finds that--

experience in both private and public employment indicates that the statutory protection of the right of employees to organize, bargain collectively, and participate through labor organizations of their own choosing in decisions which affect them-

safeguards the public interest,

contributes to the effective conduct of public business, and

facilitates and encourages the amicable settlements of disputes between employees and their employers involving conditions of employment; and

the public interest demands the highest standards of employee performance and the continued development and implementation of modern and progressive work practices to facilitate and improve employee performance and the efficient accomplishment of the operations of the Government.

Therefore, labor organizations and collective bargaining in the civil service are in the public interest. 5 U.S.C. 7101(a)(emphasis supplied).

President Obama reinforced this Congressional finding through issuance of Executive Order 13522, “Creating Labor-Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services.” The order recognizes that “Federal employees and their union representatives are an essential source of front-line ideas and information about the realities of delivering Government services to the American people.” Moreover, in addition to promoting effective labor relations, the President noted that “[a] non-adversarial forum for managers, employees, and employees’ union representatives to discuss Government operations will … improve the productivity and effectiveness of the Federal Government.”

The role of unions in the Federal sector is significantly different than it is in the private sector. Indeed, the CSRA establishes a collective bargaining system that is tailored to the unique concerns of the Federal Government, carefully balancing the interests of the public, agency management, and employees. Thus, Federal employees are prohibited by law from striking as a means to redress grievances with their employers. See 5 U.S.C. 7116(b)(7). Many of the terms and conditions of employment of a Federal employee (including pay and benefits for most employees) are set by law and not subject to bargaining. Others are taken off the bargaining table by a broad management rights provision. See 5 U.S.C. 7106(a). Finally, Federal sector unions must represent all employees in a bargaining unit, regardless of whether the employees are dues-paying members of the union. See 5 U.S.C. 7114(a)(1). Membership in labor unions is therefore entirely voluntary for Federal employees and, as a result, there are fewer incentives for Federal employees to join and pay union dues than there are for private sector and many state and local government employees. This voluntary membership in Federal sector unions results in considerable reliance by unions on the volunteer work of bargaining unit employees, rather than paid union business agents, to represent the union in representational matters such as collective bargaining and grievances.

“Official time,” authorized by 5 U.S.C. 7131, is a core component of the Federal Government’s carefully crafted collective bargaining system. Official time is time spent by Federal employees performing representational work for a bargaining unit in lieu of their regularly assigned work. It allows unions to satisfy their duty of fair representation to members and non-members alike.

Official time is available for representational tasks only. It is therefore not available:

for conducting internal union business (such as union elections or conventions); or,

for any other purpose not tied directly to representation of bargaining unit employees in matters concerning conditions of employment.

Rather, union representatives use official time in the service of bargaining unit members, including:

to participate in labor-management workgroups;

to represent bargaining unit employees in meetings;

to facilitate implementation of new workplace initiatives that enhance employees’ ability to effectively serve the public;

to assist the agency in communicating important information about workplace matters to employees;

to negotiate contracts and other collective bargaining agreements; and,

to represent employees in grievances and disciplinary actions.

With the issuance of E.O. 13522 in 2009, which established labor-management forums across the Federal Government, both labor and management representatives have dedicated time to building better labor-management relationships and collaborating on workplace issues within their organizations. One of the central goals of the forums is to help agencies better accomplish their mission in delivering high quality products, services, and protection to the American public. In many agencies, the forums’ efforts are focusing on time and cost-saving initiatives. The forums also mirror private-sector initiatives in recent years to encourage strong labor-management relationships to drive better productivity and industry competitiveness.

Official Time Statistics for Fiscal Year 2011

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) emphasizes that labor and management have a shared responsibility to ensure that official time is authorized and used appropriately. OPM expects labor and management to develop sensible arrangements for official time that meet the needs and expectations of agencies, employees, and the ultimate customers – the American people.

OPM used figures gathered from automated time and attendance systems via the Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) system to collect official time data. Agencies were asked to verify the official time hours used by employee representatives within their organizations, and to validate how those hours were used within four pre-defined categories (See Appendix A). Executive departments and agencies with employees represented by labor organizations, as well as the Government Printing Office and U.S. Capitol Police, are covered in this report.

Each agency that reported official time electronically received a consolidated report, encompassing all agency subcomponents, of their official time usage within each of the four categories. Since the EHRI system tracks individual records, it may not have accounted for changes to an employee’s bargaining unit status during the course of the fiscal year. Recognizing this system’s limitation, agencies were requested to authenticate this data against their internal records to ensure that the data reported for each agency was accurate and complete. Agencies that have not transitioned to an e-Payroll system were asked to submit their official time usage manually for FY 2011. All sixty-one agencies covered in this report confirmed or updated their official time data.

FY 2011 Survey Findings. During FY 2011, unions represented 1,202,733 non-Postal Federal civil service bargaining unit employees, an increase of 17,048 bargaining unit employees compared to FY 2010. Agencies reported that bargaining unit employees spent a total of 3,395,187 hours performing representational duties on official time, an increase of 9.66 percent compared to FY 2010. Government-wide, the number of official time hours used per bargaining unit employee on representational matters increased from 2.61 hours in FY 2010 to 2.82 hours during FY 2011. Factors contributing to the increase in official time used include:

The increased number of bargaining unit employees;

An increase in mid-term and term collective bargaining in several large agencies in FY 2011;

The increased use of labor-management forums to help find more effective and lower cost ways to deliver government services; and,

Increased emphasis in some agencies on accurately documenting official time compared to previous years.

Official time costs represented one tenth of one percent of the total cost of salary and benefits for Federal employees in FY 2011, yet can contribute in meaningful ways to the ability of Federal employees to carry out their duties on behalf of the American people.

Comparison of Hours Reported to Previous Fiscal Year

The following table shows the hours reported by agency in FY 2010 and FY 2011, and the change in percentage between the two years. The data show wide variations in official time hours reported among agencies compared to the previous year. Many of the agencies showing the widest variation from the previous year, however, have a small number of bargaining unit employees. Thus, modest numerical changes in reported hours translate into significant percentage changes for these agencies. Eighteen of the 61 agencies reported reductions in the number of official time hours used.

Official Time Rates

The official time rate, also referred to as the Hours Per Employee (HPE) rate, which indicates the number of official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee, allows for meaningful comparisons of official time usage among agencies. The HPE rate may not show a change in total figures due to rounding. Although figures are rounded, slight variations in the HPE rate are reflected in the percentage of change. The average FY 2011 Government-wide HPE rate was 2.82 which is an increase to the FY 2010 HPE rate of 2.61.

Categories

Agencies report official time by categories: Term Negotiations, Mid-Term Negotiations, Dispute Resolution, and General Labor-Management Relations. Official time usage for General Labor-Management Relations accounted for the greatest share of Government-wide official time hours. Agencies reported 2,576,303.86 hours in the General Labor-Management Relations category, representing 75.88 percent of all reported official time hours.

Cost

Costs were estimated based on September 2011 wage data provided through the Enterprise Human Resources Integration Statistical Data Mart (EHRI-SDM). The estimated total payroll costs, salary and benefits, for FY 2011 official time hours was $155,573,739.25. We estimate each agency’s official time wage costs by multiplying the reported official time hours by each agency’s average bargaining unit employee hourly wage plus fringe benefits. In comparing FY 2010 and FY 2011 data, the cost of official time hours increased by 11.86 percent. This increase reflects, in part, the increased number of bargaining unit employees and the corresponding increase in official time usage Government-wide.

Conclusion

Total official time hours across the Government have increased 9.66 percent from fiscal year 2010 to fiscal year 2011. The hours expended per bargaining unit employee increased from 2.61 to 2.82 from fiscal year 2010 to fiscal year 2011.

For further information regarding this report, please contact Partnership and Labor Relations at PLR@OPM.gov.

Appendix A: Definitions and Terminology

Official Time means all time, regardless of agency nomenclature, granted to an employee by the agency to perform representational functions under 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 and by collective bargaining agreement when the employee would otherwise be in a duty status.

Official Time Reporting Categories— agencies are being asked to report four categories of official time use.

Term Negotiations— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used by union representatives to prepare for and negotiate a basic collective bargaining agreement or its successor.

Mid-Term Negotiations— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to bargain over issues raised during the life of a term agreement.

Dispute Resolution— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to process grievances up to and including arbitrations and to process appeals of bargaining unit employees to the various administrative agencies such as the MSPB, FLRA and EEOC and, as necessary, to the courts.

General Labor-Management Relations— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used for activities not included in the above three categories. Examples of such activities include: meetings between labor and management officials to discuss general conditions of employment, labor-management committee meetings, labor relations training for union representatives, and union participation in formal meetings and investigative interviews.

Representational Functions refers to activities undertaken by employees acting on behalf of the labor organization or fulfilling the organization’s responsibility to represent bargaining unit employees in accordance with 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 and a collective bargaining agreement.

on this page

Official Time Usage in the Federal GovernmentFiscal Year 2010 Survey Responses

Introduction

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 includes the following Congressional finding:

The Congress finds that

experience in both private and public employment indicates that the statutory protection of the right of employees to organize, bargain collectively, and participate through labor organizations of their own choosing in decisions which affect them

safeguards the public interest,

contributes to the effective conduct of public business, and

facilitates and encourages the amicable settlements of disputes between employees and their employers involving conditions of employment; and

the public interest demands the highest standards of employee performance and the continued development and implementation of modern and progressive work practices to facilitate and improve employee performance and the efficient accomplishment of the operations of the Government.

Therefore, labor organizations and collective bargaining in the civil service are in the public interest.

5 U.S.C. 7101(a) (emphasis supplied).

President Obama reinforced this Congressional finding through issuance of Executive Order 13522, "Creating Labor-Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services." The order recognizes that "Federal employees and their union representatives are an essential source of front-line ideas and information about the realities of delivering Government services to the American people." Moreover, in addition to promoting satisfactory labor relations, the President noted that "[a] non-adversarial forum for managers, employees, and employees' union representatives to discuss Government operations will ... improve the productivity and effectiveness of the Federal Government."

The role of unions in the Federal sector is significantly different than it is in the private sector. Indeed, the CSRA establishes a collective bargaining system that is tailored to the unique concerns of the Federal Government, carefully balancing the interests of the public, agency management, and employees. Thus, Federal employees are prohibited by law from striking. See 5 U.S.C. 7116(b)(7). Many of the terms and conditions of employment of a Federal employee (including pay and benefits for most employees) are set by law and not subject to bargaining. Others are taken off the bargaining table by a broad management rights provision. See 5 U.S.C. 7106(a). Finally, Federal sector unions must represent all employees in a bargaining unit, regardless of whether the employee is a dues-paying member of the union or not. See 5 U.S.C. 7114(a)(1). Membership in labor unions is therefore totally voluntary for Federal employees and, as a result, there are fewer incentives for Federal employees to join and pay union dues than there are for private sector and many state and local government employees. This voluntary membership in Federal sector unions results in considerable reliance by unions on the volunteer work of bargaining unit employees, rather than paid union business agents, to represent the union in representational matters such as collective bargaining and grievances.

"Official time," authorized by 5 U.S.C. 7131, is a core component of the Federal government's carefully crafted collective bargaining system. Official time is time spent by Federal employees performing representational work for a bargaining unit in lieu of their regularly assigned work. It allows unions to satisfy their duty of fair representation to members and non-members alike.

Official time is available for representational tasks only. It is therefore not available:

for conducting internal union business (such as union elections or conventions); or

for any other purpose not tied directly to representation of bargaining unit employees in matters concerning conditions of employment.

Rather, union representatives use official time in the service of bargaining unit members, including

to participate in labor-management workgroups;

to represent bargaining unit employees in meetings;

to facilitate implementation of new workplace initiatives;

to assist the agency in communicating important information about workplace matters to employees;

to negotiate contracts and other collective bargaining agreements; and

to represent employees in grievances and disciplinary actions.

Official Time Statistics for Fiscal Year 2010

Annual reporting on official time was initiated by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in 2002 to reinforce accountability on the part of both labor and management and to emphasize their shared responsibility that official time is authorized and used appropriately. OPM expects management and labor to develop sensible arrangements for official time that meet the needs and expectations of agencies, employees, and the ultimate customers - the American people.

OPM transmitted the call to report FY 2010 official time data in a June 28, 2011, memorandum to agencies. OPM used figures gathered from automated time and attendance systems via the Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) system to collect official time data. Agencies were asked to verify the official time hours used by employee representatives within their organizations, and to validate how those hours were used within four pre-defined categories (See Appendix A). FY 2010 was the second consecutive year that OPM relied upon agency official time usage data extracted from the EHRI system. Executive departments and agencies with employees represented by labor organizations, as well as the Government Printing Office and U.S. Capitol Police, are covered in this report.

Each agency that reported official time electronically received a consolidated report, encompassing all agency subcomponents, of their official time usage within each of the four categories. Since the EHRI system tracks individual records, it may not have accounted for changes to an employee's bargaining unit status during the course of the fiscal year. Recognizing this system's limitation, agencies were requested to authenticate this data against their internal records to ensure that the data reported for each agency was accurate and complete. Agencies that have not transitioned to an e-Payroll system were asked to submit their official time usage manually for FY 2010. All sixty-one total agencies covered in this report confirmed or updated their official time data.

FY 2010 Survey Findings. Overall, FY 2010 brought an increase in the number of bargaining unit employees and official time used. During FY 2010, unions represented 1,185,685 non-Postal Federal civil service bargaining unit employees, an increase of 26,289 bargaining unit employees compared to 1,159,396 employees reported in FY 2009. Agencies reported that bargaining unit employees spent a total of 3,096,0181 hours performing representational duties on official time. This is a 3.50* percent increase in official time hours used in FY 2009. Finally, the number of official time hours used per bargaining unit employee on representational matters during FY 2010, on average across the government, increased from 2.58 hours in FY 2009 to 2.61* hours during FY 2010.

TOTAL OFFICIAL TIME HOURS - FY 2006-2010

FY 2010

FY 2009

FY 2008

FY 2007

FY 2006

Total Official Time Hours

3,096,018*

2,991,378

2,893,922

2,800,741

2,718,142

Rate (Hours per BU Employee)

2.58

2.58

2.60

2.69

2.60

1 The Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Department of Labor have updated their agency official time figures previously published in our report. As a result, many figures have been modified throughout the report to reflect these updates. Total hours, the hours per bargaining unit employee rate, costs, and percentage changes for each respective category, have been changed to reflect updated data from the Broadcasting Board of Governors and Department of Labor and its impact government-wide. Please note each figure that has been corrected from the previously published figure will be annotated by an asterisk throughout the report.

Comparison of Hours Reported to Previous Fiscal Year

The following table shows the hours reported by agency in FY 2009 and FY 2010, and the change in percentage between the two years. The data show wide variations in official time hours reported among agencies compared to the previous year. Many of the agencies showing the widest variation from the previous year, however, have a small number of bargaining unit employees. Thus, modest numerical changes in reported hours translate into significant percentage changes for these agencies. Seventeen* of the 61 agencies reported reductions in the number of official time hours used.

Official Time Rates

The official time rate, also referred to as the Hours Per Employee (HPE) rate, which indicates the average number of official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee, allows for meaningful comparisons of official time usage among agencies. The average FY 2010 government-wide HPE rate was 2.61* which is an increase to the FY 2009 HPE rate of 2.58.

Categories

Agencies report official time by categories: Term Negotiations, Mid-Term Negotiations, Dispute Resolution, and General Labor-Management Relations. Official time usage for General Labor-Management Relations accounted for the greatest share of government-wide official time hours. Agencies reported 2,389,825.10* hours in the General Labor-Management Relations category, representing 77.19* percent of all reported official time hours.

Cost

Costs were estimated based on September 2010 wage data provided through the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF). The total payroll costs, salary and benefits, for FY 2010 official time hours was $139,081,908*. We estimate each agency's official time wage costs by multiplying the reported official time hours by each agency's average bargaining unit employee hourly wage plus fringe benefits. In comparing FY 2009 and FY 2010 data, the cost of official time hours increased by 7.73* percent. This increase reflects, in part, the increased number of bargaining unit employees and the corresponding increase in official time usage government-wide. Official time costs represented less than two tenths of one percent of the total civilian personnel budget (salary and benefits) for Federal civil service bargaining unit employees.

4This corrects the previous erroneous calculation of official time cost for the Department of Health and Human Services of $1,626,668 as listed in the FY 2009 Official Time Usage Report.

5 While U.S. Capitol Police provided time and attendance data on official time hours used for FY 2010, OPM did not receive the FY 2010 bargaining unit employee average salary figures. The FY 2009 bargaining unit employee average salary figures were used for FY 2010 for U.S. Capitol Police.

Conclusion

Total official time hours across the government have increased 3.50* percent from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2010. The hours expended per bargaining unit employee increased from 2.58 to 2.61* from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2010.

For further information regarding this report, please contact Partnership and Labor Relations at PLR@OPM.gov.

Appendix A: Definitions and Terminology

Official Time means all time, regardless of agency nomenclature, granted to an employee by the agency to perform representational functions under 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 and by collective bargaining agreement when the employee would otherwise be in a duty status.

Official Time Reporting Categories - agencies are being asked to report four categories of official time use.

Term Negotiations - this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used by union representatives to prepare for and negotiate a basic collective bargaining agreement or its successor.

Mid-Term Negotiations - this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to bargain over issues raised during the life of a term agreement.

Dispute Resolution - this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to process grievances up to and including arbitrations and to process appeals of bargaining unit employees to the various administrative agencies such as the MSPB, FLRA and EEOC and, as necessary, to the courts.

General Labor-Management Relations - this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used for activities not included in the above three categories. Examples of such activities include: meetings between labor and management officials to discuss general conditions of employment, labor-management committee meetings, labor relations training for union representatives, and union participation in formal meetings and investigative interviews.

Representational Functions refers to activities undertaken by employees acting on behalf of the labor organization or fulfilling the organization's responsibility to represent bargaining unit employees in accordance with 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 and a collective bargaining agreement.

7 While U.S. Capitol Police provided time and attendance data on official time hours used for FY 2010, OPM did not receive the FY 2010 bargaining unit employee average salary figures. The FY 2009 bargaining unit employee average salary figures were used for FY 2010 for U.S. Capitol Police.

on this page

Official Time Usage in the Federal GovernmentFiscal Year 2009 Survey Responses

Introduction

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 includes the following Congressional finding:

The Congress finds that--

experience in both private and public employment indicates that the statutory protection of the right of employees to organize, bargain collectively, and participate through labor organizations of their own choosing in decisions which affect them-

safeguards the public interest,

contributes to the effective conduct of public business, and

facilitates and encourages the amicable settlements of disputes between employees and their employers involving conditions of employment; and

the public interest demands the highest standards of employee performance and the continued development and implementation of modern and progressive work practices to facilitate and improve employee performance and the efficient accomplishment of the operations of the Government.

Therefore, labor organizations and collective bargaining in the civil service are in the public interest.

5 U.S.C. 7101(a) (emphasis supplied).

President Obama reinforced this Congressional finding through issuance of Executive Order 13522, "Creating Labor-Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services." The order recognizes that "Federal employees and their union representatives are an essential source of front-line ideas and information about the realities of delivering Government services to the American people." Moreover, in addition to promoting satisfactory labor relations, the President noted that "[a] non-adversarial forum for managers, employees, and employees' union representatives to discuss Government operations will ... improve the productivity and effectiveness of the Federal Government."

The role of unions in the Federal sector is significantly different than it is in the private sector. Indeed, the CSRA establishes a collective bargaining system that is tailored to the unique concerns of the Federal Government, carefully balancing the interests of the public, agency management, and employees. Thus, Federal employees are prohibited by law from striking. See 5 U.S.C. 7116(b)(7). Many of the terms and conditions of employment of a Federal employee (including pay and benefits for most employees) are set by law and not subject to bargaining. Others are taken off the bargaining table by a broad management rights provision. See 5 U.S.C. 7106(a). Finally, Federal sector unions must represent all employees in a bargaining unit, regardless of whether the employee is a dues-paying member of the union or not. See 5 U.S.C. 7114(a)(1). Membership in labor unions is therefore totally voluntary for Federal employees and, as a result, there are fewer incentives for Federal employees to join and pay union dues than there are for private sector and many state and local government employees. This voluntary membership in Federal sector unions results in considerable reliance by unions on the volunteer work of bargaining unit employees, rather than paid union business agents, to represent the union in representational matters such as collective bargaining and grievances.

"Official time," authorized by 5 U.S.C. 7131, is a core component of the Federal government's carefully crafted collective bargaining system. Official time is time spent by Federal employees performing representational work for a bargaining unit in lieu of their regularly assigned work. It allows unions to satisfy their duty of fair representation to members and non-members alike.

Official time is available for representational tasks only. It is therefore not available:

for conducting internal union business (such as union elections or conventions);

to pursue lawsuits against the Federal government; or

for any other purpose not tied directly to representation of bargaining unit employees in matters concerning conditions of employment.

Rather, union representatives use official time in the service of bargaining unit members, including

to participate in labor-management workgroups;

to represent bargaining unit employees in meetings;

to facilitate implementation of new workplace initiatives;

to assist the agency in communicating important information about workplace matters to employees;

to negotiate contracts and other collective bargaining agreements; and

to represent employees in grievances and disciplinary actions.

Official Time Statistics for 2009

OPM has produced reports on official time usage since 2002. Though there are no legal or regulatory requirements to publish any official time data, OPM chose to issue the call and guidance for reporting Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 official time data in an October 26, 2010 memorandum to Federal departments and agencies. Annual reporting on official time was initiated by OPM to reinforce accountability on the part of both labor and management, emphasizing their shared responsibility that official time is authorized and used appropriately. OPM expects management and labor to develop sensible arrangements for official time that meet the needs and expectations of agencies, employees, and the ultimate customers - the American people. There are no legal or regulatory requirements to publish this report

OPM continues to refine official time data collection, using figures gathered from automated time and attendance systems. FY 2009 was the first time that OPM relied upon agency official time usage data extracted from the Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) system. Agencies were asked to verify the official time hours used by employee representatives within their organizations, and to validate how those hours were used within four pre-defined categories (See Appendix A).

Each agency that reported official time electronically received a consolidated report, encompassing all subcomponents, of their official time usage within each of the four categories. Since the EHRI system tracks individual records, it may not have accounted for changes to an employee's bargaining unit status during the course of the fiscal year. Recognizing this system's limitation, agencies were requested to authenticate this data against their internal records to ensure that the data reported for each agency was accurate and complete. Agencies that have not transitioned to an e-Payroll system were asked to submit their official time usage manually for FY 2009. Because FY 2009 was the first year for use of electronically collected data, additional time was required to compile and verify all the required information, causing a delay in developing the final report.

All 59 Executive departments and agencies that have employees represented by labor organizations, as well as the Government Printing Office and U.S. Capitol Police, confirmed or updated their official time data. Responding agencies and departments reported 2,991,378 official time hours used in FY 2009. The average number of official time hours used per bargaining unit employee (HPE) rate was 2.58 percent, a slight decrease from FY 2008. Compared to FY 2008, the total number of hours reported increased by 3.37 percent and the total number of employees in a bargaining unit increased by 3.91 percent in FY 2009 from 1,115,667 employees to 1,159,396 employees.

Comparison of Hours Reported to Previous Fiscal Year

The following table shows the hours reported by agency in FY 2008 and FY 2009, and the change in percentage between the two years. The data show wide variations in official time hours reported among agencies compared to the previous year. Many of the agencies showing the widest variation from the previous year, however, have a small number of bargaining unit employees. Thus, modest numerical changes in reported hours translate into significant percentage changes for these agencies. Thirty-four of the 61 agencies reported reductions in the number of official time hours used.

Official Time Rates

The official time rate, also referred to as the Hours Per Employee (HPE) rate, which indicates the average number of official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee, allows for meaningful comparisons of official time usage among agencies. The average FY 2009 government-wide HPE rate was 2.58 which represents a less than one percent decrease from the FY 2008 HPE rate. Changes in an agency's official time rate must be viewed together with the number of total official time hours used.

Categories

Agencies report official time by categories: Term Bargaining, Mid-Term Bargaining, Dispute Resolution, and General Labor-Management issues. Official time usage for General Labor-Management issues accounted for the greatest share of government-wide official time hours. Agencies reported 2,309,371 hours in the General Labor-Management category, representing 77.20 percent of all reported official time hours.

Cost

Costs were estimated based on September 2008 wage data provided through the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF). We estimate each agency's official time wage costs by multiplying the reported official time hours by each agency's average bargaining unit employee hourly wage plus fringe benefits. In comparing those agencies that reported in both FY 2007 and FY 2008, we find the cost of official time hours increased by 5.97 percent. This increase follows general governmentwide wage increases.

Conclusion

Total official time hours across the government have increased 3.37 percent from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2009. The hours expended per bargaining unit employee fell at a marginal rate of less than one percent from 2.60 to 2.58 percent from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2009.

For further information regarding this report, please contact Partnership and Labor Relations at PLR@OPM.gov.

Appendix A: Definitions and Terminology

Official Time means all time, regardless of agency nomenclature, granted to an employee by the agency to perform representational functions under 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 and by collective bargaining agreement when the employee would otherwise be in a duty status.

Official Time Reporting Categories— agencies are being asked to report four categories of official time use.

Term Negotiations— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used by union representatives to prepare for and negotiate a basic collective bargaining agreement or its successor.

Mid-Term Negotiations— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to bargain over issues raised during the life of a term agreement.

Dispute Resolution— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to process grievances up to and including arbitrations and to process appeals of bargaining unit employees to the various administrative agencies such as the MSPB, FLRA and EEOC and, as necessary, to the courts.

General Labor-Management Relations— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used for activities not included in the above three categories. Examples of such activities include: meetings between labor and management officials to discuss general conditions of employment, labor-management committee meetings, labor relations training for union representatives, and union participation in formal meetings and investigative interviews.

Representational Functions refers to activities undertaken by employees acting on behalf of the labor organization or fulfilling the organization's responsibility to represent bargaining unit employees in accordance with 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 and a collective bargaining agreement.

ON THIS PAGE

Official Time Usage in the Federal GovernmentFiscal Year 2008 Survey Responses

Introduction

OPM issued the call and guidance for reporting Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 official time data in a November 3, 2008 memorandum to Federal departments and agencies. All 61 Executive departments and agencies that have employees represented by labor organizations, as well as the Government Printing Office and U.S. Capitol Police, provided their official time data, increasing the response rate by 15 percent over FY 2007. Responding agencies and departments reported 2,893,922 official time hours used in FY 2008. The average number of official time hours used per bargaining unit employee (HPE) rate was 2.60 percent. The total number of hours reported rose by 3.3 percent over FY 2007, however, among those agencies reporting in both FY 2007 and FY 2008, the increase in hours reported was 2.9 percent.

Table 1. Total Official Time Hours - FY 2004-2008

FY 2008

FY 2007

FY 2006

FY 2005

FY 2004

Total Official Time Hours

2,893,922

2,800,741

2,718,142

3,359,057

3,870,460

Rate (Hours per BU Employee)

2.60

2.69

2.60

3.20

3.70

Comparison of Hours Reported to Previous Fiscal Year

The following table shows the hours reported by agency in FY 2007 and FY 2008 and the percentage of change between the two years. The data shows wide variations among agencies, with changes from the previous year ranging from a decrease of 100 percent to increases of more than 200 percent. Many of the agencies showing the widest variation from the previous year, however, have a small number of bargaining unit employees. Thus, modest numerical changes in reported hours translate into significant percentage changes for these agencies.

The agency reporting the most significant change is Department of State. The number of bargaining unit employees increased more than 63 percent. State reported an increase of official time hours of more than 150 percent, however they continue to have one of the lowest hours-per -bargaining unit employee rate at .75. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported a large increase in its dispute resolution hours for an increase of 10,166 total hours which is a 40 percent increase.

Twenty-two of the 61 agencies, reported reductions in both the number of official time hours used which resulted in a reduction in the number of hours used per bargaining unit employee. Among agencies with 1,000 or more bargaining unit employees, the U.S. Capitol Police had the largest decrease (-38.3 percent) in official time hours which also reduced their number of hours per employee by more than 40 percent (see discussion in next section).

Official Time Rates

The official time rate also referred to as the Hours Per Employee (HPE) rate, which indicates the average number of official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee, allows for meaningful comparisons of official time usage among agencies. The average FY 2008 governmentwide HPE rate was 2.60 percent, representing a 3.3 percent decrease. Ironically, this returns the HPE rate to that of FY 2006 thus continuing the downward trend in the HPE rate observed since FY 2002 after being interrupted by the FY 2007 increase in this rate.

Changes in an agency's official time rate must be viewed together with the number of total official time hours used. For example, the Export-Import Bank reported a 225.5 percent increase in its HPE rate, but it only increased from .19 to .41, which continues to be one of the lowest rates among all agencies. At just over 219 percent, the Small Business Administration experienced the largest percentage increase in both total hours and HPE. The agency reported most of the increase within the General Labor-Management category.

Among Departments, Treasury reported the greatest HPE rate at 7.21, while Department of Defense, which employs over 411,000 bargaining unit employees, reported only .80 hours per bargaining unit employee

The National Labor Relations Board continues to report the highest rate among all agencies at 12.18. The EEOC which accomplished significant reductions in FY 2007 experienced a significant increase in FY 2008 returning it to the second highest HPE rate at 10.05.

Categories

Agencies report official time by categories which allow greater analysis of official time use and variations from year to year. The General Labor-Management Relations category again accounted for the greatest share of governmentwide official time hours. Agencies reported 2,151,366 hours in this category, representing 74.3 percent of all reported official time hours, a 2.3 percent decrease from FY 2007. As we have noted in previous years, anecdotal information from agencies indicates this category is often used to report hours for activities not specifically identified by union officials or tracked by supervisors. This is particularly prevalent when the union official is on 100 percent official time. The high percentages reported in this category by many agencies, when viewed within the context of total hours reported, indicates an opportunity for some agencies to strengthen the integrity of their data and, perhaps, the management of official time.

Cost

Costs were estimated based on September 2008 wage data provided through the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF). We estimate each agency's official time wage costs by multiplying the reported official time hours by each agency's average bargaining unit employee hourly wage plus fringe benefits. In comparing those agencies that reported in both FY 2007 and FY 2008, we find the cost of official time hours increased by 5.97 percent. This increase follows general governmentwide wage increases.

Conclusion

The FY 2008 increase in use of official time hours is similar to that observed in FY 2007 while the number of hours per employee has returned to the same level reported in FY 2006.

There are favorable trends among many agencies that should not be overlooked. Several agencies have been making major strides in managing and recording the use of official time, often resulting in a reduction of the hours used. We continue to have concerns that the large percentage of hours reported under the General Labor-Management category may not accurately reflect the purposes for which official time is actually being used. This may indicate a need for better understanding among supervisors and union officials of the activities that are included in each category. This is especially reflective of agencies that employ full time union officials. This may also serve as a viable opportunity for agencies to address the reporting requirements when they negotiate future collective bargaining agreements.

For further information regarding this report, please contact the Center for Workforce Relations and Accountability Policy at (202) 606-2930 or CWRAP@OPM.gov.

Appendix A: Definitions and Terminology

Official Time means all time, regardless of agency nomenclature, granted to an employee by the agency to perform representational functions under 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 or by collective bargaining agreement when the employee would otherwise be in a duty status.

Official Time Reporting Categories— agencies are being asked to report four categories of official time use.

Term Negotiations— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used by union representatives to prepare for and negotiate a basic collective bargaining agreement or its successor.

Mid-Term Negotiations— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to bargain over issues raised during the life of a term agreement.

Dispute Resolution— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to process grievances up to and including arbitrations and to process appeals of bargaining unit employees to the various administrative agencies such as the MSPB, FLRA and EEOC and, as necessary, to the courts.

General Labor-Management Relations— this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used for activities not included in the above three categories. Examples of such activities include: meetings between labor and management officials to discuss general conditions of employment, labor-management committee meetings, labor relations training for union representatives, and union participation in formal meetings and investigative interviews.

Representational Functions refers to activities undertaken by employees acting on behalf of the labor organization or fulfilling the organization's responsibility to represent bargaining unit employees in accordance with 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 or a collective bargaining agreement.

ON THIS PAGE

Official Time Usage in the Federal GovernmentFiscal Year 2007 Survey Responses

Introduction

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) established an annual reporting requirement in FY 2002 to strengthen accountability and agency focus on the use, authorization and tracking of official time. In FY 2004, we refined and expanded the reporting requirements by asking agencies to report official time hours in four categories of use: term negotiations, mid-term negotiations, dispute resolution, and general labor-management relations. See Appendix A for a description of each category.

Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 was to be the first year in which OPM would rely on official time data transmitted through agency payroll providers to the Enterprise Human Resources Integration system (EHRI). However, EHRI did not begin receiving the relevant data until January 2007. As a result, agencies were required to calculate and submit their official time data directly to OPM.1

OPM issued the call and guidance for reporting FY 2007 official time data in a January 14, 2008 memorandum to Federal departments and agencies. Fifty four of 63 departments and agencies that have employees represented by labor organizations as well as the Government Printing Office and U.S. Capitol Police provided their official time data, constituting an increase of 11 percent over those responding for FY 2006.2 Responding agencies and departments reported 2,800,747 official time hours for FY 2007. Reversing a four year trend, the average number of official time hours used per bargaining unit employee (HPE) increased by 3.6 percent. This is partly due to an increase of almost 12 percent in the number of hours used for negotiating collective bargaining agreements. The total number of hours reported rose 3.04 percent, which is partially due to the increase in the number of reporting agencies. Among those agencies reporting in both FY 2006 and FY 2007, the increase in hours reported was 2.78 percent.

Table 1. Total Official Time Hours FY 2003-2007

FY 2007

FY 2006

FY 2005

FY 2004

FY 2003

Total Official Time Hours

2,800,747

2,718,142

3,359,057

3,870,460

4,722,347

Rate (Hours per BU Employee)

2.69

2.60

3.2

3.7

4.4

1Preliminary data collected by EHRI for FY 2008 indicates that most agencies are now reporting their official time hours electronically through their payroll providers.

2 Data was not received from the Presidio Trust, Securities and Exchange Commission, International Trade Commission, Armed Forces Retirement Home, Agency for International Development, Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, Commission on Civil Rights, Office of Government Ethics and the International Boundary & Water Commission: US and Mexico.

Comparison of Hours Reported to Previous Fiscal Year

The following table shows the hours reported by agency in FYs 2006 and 2007 and the percentage of any change between the two years. The data shows wide variations among agencies, with changes from the previous year ranging from a decrease of 75 percent to increases of more than 800 percent. Many of the agencies showing the widest variation from the previous year have a small number of bargaining unit employees. Thus, modest numerical changes in reported hours translate into significant percentage changes for these agencies.

The agency reporting the most significant change is Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency's Pre-Trial Services. FY 2007 was its first full year after being organized and the year in which it negotiated its first collective bargaining agreement which accounted for more than 60 percent of their official time hours. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported a 63 percent drop in official time hours from FY 2006, a year in which its use of official time hours more than doubled from FY 2005. The General Services Administration (GSA) reported a large increase in its term bargaining hours as it negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement. However, GSA also had a larger decrease in Dispute Resolution hours, and reduced its overall reported official time hours as well as its official time rate per bargaining unit employee even while reporting 300 less employees.

Among Departments, Transportation experienced the largest percentage increase in both total hours and hours per employee at 55 percent while Treasury continues to report the highest number of hours per employee. The majority of Departments, however, reported reductions in both the number of official time hours used and in their hours per employee.

Official Time Rates

The official time rate, which indicates the average number of official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee, allows for meaningful comparisons of official time usage among agencies. The average FY 2007 government-wide official time rate was 2.69 official time hours per bargaining unit employee, representing a 3.6 percent increase in the official time rate. Changes in an agency's official time rate must be viewed together with the number of hours used. For example, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service reported a 200 percent increase in its official time rate but it only increased from .20 to .60 hours per employee, which is one of the lowest rates among all agencies.

Despite a reduction from FY 2006, the Department of Treasury continues to report the highest number of official time hours per employee among all Departments with 95 percent of its hours reported in the General Labor-Management category. The Department of State led all Departments in reducing their hours by 50 percent. Although it reported a decrease in bargaining unit employees, its reported rate of decrease in hours still resulted in a reduced official time rate.

Among Independent Agencies, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Export-Import Bank led with reductions in excess of 60 percent. The National Labor Relations Board reported the highest rate at 11.5 hours per employee, a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Despite an 18 percent reduction in the size of its bargaining unit, there was no concurrent reduction in the number of official time hours.

Categories

Agencies report official time by categories which allow greater analysis of official time use and variations from year to year. The General Labor-Management Relations category again accounted for the greatest share of government-wide official time hours. Agencies reported 2,145,398 hours in this category, representing 76.6 percent of all reported official time hours, an increase over FY 2006. As we have noted in previous years, anecdotal information from agencies indicates that this category is often used to report hours for activities not specifically identified by union officials. This is particularly prevalent when the union official is on 100 percent official time. The high percentages reported in this category by many agencies, when viewed within the context of total hours reported, indicates an opportunity for some agencies to strengthen the integrity of their data and, perhaps, the management of official time.

Cost

Costs were estimated based on December 2007 wage data provided through the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF). We estimate each agency's official time wage costs by multiplying the reported official time hours by each agency's average bargaining unit employee hourly wage plus fringe benefits.4 In comparing those agencies that reported in both FY 2006 and FY 2007, we find the cost of official time hours increased by 12.7 percent. This increase follows general wage increases, the increase in the use of official time and the number of agencies reporting.

Conclusion

The FY 2007 increase in use of official time hours reverses the trend observed since OPM began collecting official time data for FY 2002, although we continue to observe favorable trends among many agencies. We continue to have concerns that the large percentage of hours reported under the General Labor-Management category may indicate a need for better understanding among supervisors and union officials of the activities that are included in each category. There also may be an opportunity for agencies to address the reporting requirements when they negotiate future collective bargaining agreements.

OPM continues to refine official time data collection as agencies transition to automated tracking and reporting through their time and attendance systems. We expect that e-Payroll tracking and reporting will further enhance the accuracy of reported official time data while reducing the administrative burden of collecting that data. Full implementation, scheduled to begin during the FY 2007 reporting year has essentially been accomplished and will allow us to collect and examine agency and government-wide official time use on a near real-time basis for analysis during the year.

For further information regarding this report, please contact the Center for Workforce Relations and Accountability Policy at (202) 606-2930 or CWRAP@OPM.gov.

Appendix A: Definitions and Terminology

Official Time means all time, regardless of agency nomenclature, granted to an employee by the agency to perform representational functions under 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 or by collective bargaining agreement when the employee would otherwise be in a duty status.

Official Time Reporting Categories – agencies are being asked to report four categories of official time use.

Term Negotiations – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used by union representatives to prepare for and negotiate a basic collective bargaining agreement or its successor.

Mid-Term Negotiations – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to bargain over issues raised during the life of a term agreement.

Dispute Resolution – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to process grievances up to and including arbitrations and to process appeals of bargaining unit employees to the various administrative agencies such as the MSPB, FLRA and EEOC and, as necessary, to the courts.

General Labor-Management Relations – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used for activities not included in the above three categories. Examples of such activities include: meetings between labor and management officials to discuss general conditions of employment, labor-management committee meetings, labor relations training for union representatives, and union participation in formal meetings and investigative interviews.

Representational Functions refers to activities undertaken by employees acting on behalf of the labor organization or fulfilling the organization's responsibility to represent bargaining unit employees in accordance with 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 or a collective bargaining agreement.

ON THIS PAGE

Official Time Usage in the Federal GovernmentFiscal Year 2006 Survey Responses

Introduction

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) established an annual reporting requirement in FY 2002 to strengthen accountability and agency focus on the use, authorization and tracking of official time. In FY 2004, we refined and expanded the reporting requirements by asking agencies to report official time hours in four categories of use: term negotiations, mid-term negotiations, dispute resolution, and general labor-management relations. See Appendix A for a description of each category.

OPM continues to work on enhancing the accuracy of official time data and reducing the administrative burden on agencies by integrating official time tracking into the e-Payroll Initiative. With e-Payroll data collection, official time hours are captured electronically through agency time and attendance systems on a pay-period basis. Most agencies began updating their internal data systems and transitioning to time and attendance e-Payroll tracking in FY 2004. Full implementation, allowing us to collect and examine data on government-wide official time usage on a near real-time basis, currently is scheduled for the FY 2007 reporting year.

OPM issued the call and guidance for reporting FY 2006 official time data in a December 13, 2006 memorandum to Federal departments and agencies. Forty seven of 65 departments and agencies that have employees represented by labor organizations responded to OPM's FY 2006 official time survey. The non-responding agencies, however, are relatively small and do not significantly impact the findings of this report. Responding agencies and departments reported 2,718,119 official time hours for FY 2006. This is the fourth consecutive year in which reported official time hours decreased, which may reflect improved reporting as agencies increase the use of electronic time and attendance systems to capture this information.

Comparison of Hours Reported to Previous Fiscal Year

The FY 2006 survey responses show a 19.1 percent government-wide decrease in reported official time from those reported in FY 2005. The following table shows the hours reported by each agency in FYs 2005 and 2006 and the percentage of any change between the two years. The table shows wide variation among agencies, with changes from the previous year ranging from a decrease of 82.7 percent to increases of over 4700 percent. Many of the agencies showing the widest variation from the previous year have a small number of bargaining unit employees. Thus, modest numerical changes in reported hours translated into significant percentage changes for these agencies. On the other hand, other agencies which had a significant percentage increase also had a significant increase in hours. The agency reporting the most significant change is EEOC. They have indicated that their increase was due to additional hours spent on dispute resolution and hours spent by union officials to lobby Congress against continuing the agency's National Contact Center and the agency's repositioning of personnel.

Official Time Rates

The official time rate, which indicates the average number of official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee, allows for meaningful comparisons of official time usage among agencies. The average FY 2006 government-wide official time rate was 2.60 official time hours per bargaining unit employee, representing an 18.75 percent decrease in the official time rate. Changes in the annual rate must be viewed together with actual hours used. For example, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission experienced more than a 5500 percent increase in their rate but the actual rate only rose from a meager .03 to 1.76 hours per employee which is still far below the national average. EEOC had an extraordinarily high rate for the reasons discussed in the previous section.

Categories

Agencies report categories of official time which allows greater analysis of official time use and variations from year to year. While there were decreases in each of the reported categories as compared to FY 2005, the General Labor-Management Relations category once again accounted for the greatest share of government-wide official time hours. Agencies reported 1,989,351 hours in this category, representing 73.9 percent of all reported official time hours. Anecdotal information from agencies indicates that this category is often used to report hours for activities not specifically identified by union officials. This is particularly prevalent when the union official is on 100% official time. The high percentages reported in this category by many agencies, when viewed within the context of total hours reported, indicates an opportunity for some agencies to strengthen the integrity of their data. See Exhibits 1 through 5.

2Department of Labor reported 29,120 hours as 'Other'. This reflects official time hours attributable to union representatives on 100% official time and that could not be identified by activity. Those hours are reported in General Labor-Management but not included in category calculations.

Cost

Costs were estimated based on December 2006 wage data provided through the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF). We estimate each agency's official time wage costs by multiplying the reported official time hours by each agency's average bargaining unit employee hourly wage plus fringe benefits.3 In comparing those agencies that reported in both FY 05 and FY 06, we find the cost of official time hours decreased by almost 20 percent. We believe that this continuing trend to report lower costs each year is due to improved reporting and improved labor-management relations and less mid-term bargaining.

Conclusion

The FY 2006 decrease in use of official time hours continues the trend observed since OPM began collecting official time data for FY 2002.

OPM continues to refine official time data collection as agencies transition to automated tracking and reporting through their time and attendance systems. We expect that e-Payroll tracking and reporting will further enhance the accuracy of reported official time data while reducing the administrative burden of collecting that data. Full implementation, currently scheduled to begin during the FY 2007 reporting year, will allow us to collect and examine agency and government-wide official time use on a near real-time basis.

For further information regarding this report, please contact the Center for Workforce Relations and Accountability Policy at 202-606-2930 or CWRAP@OPM.gov.

Appendix A: Definitions and Terminology

Official Time means all time, regardless of agency nomenclature, granted to an employee by the agency to perform representational functions under 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 or by collective bargaining agreement when the employee would otherwise be in a duty status.

Official Time Reporting Categories – agencies are being asked to report four categories of official time use.

Term Negotiations – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used by union representatives to prepare for and negotiate a basic collective bargaining agreement or its successor.

Mid–Term Negotiations – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to bargain over issues raised during the life of a term agreement.

Dispute Resolution – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to process grievances up to and including arbitrations and to process appeals of bargaining unit employees to the various administrative agencies such as the MSPB, FLRA and EEOC and, as necessary, to the courts.

General Labor–Management Relations – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used for activities not included in the above three categories. Examples of such activities include: meetings between labor and management officials to discuss general conditions of employment, labor-management committee meetings, labor relations training for union representatives, and union participation in formal meetings and investigative interviews.

Representational Functions refers to activities undertaken by employees acting on behalf of the labor organization or fulfilling the organization's responsibility to represent bargaining unit employees in accordance with 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 or a collective bargaining agreement.

ON THIS PAGE

Official Time Usage in the Federal GovernmentFiscal Year 2005 Survey Responses

Introduction

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) established an annual reporting requirement in FY 2002 to strengthen accountability and agency focus on the use, authorization and tracking of official time. We reported the results and findings of our FY 2002 and FY 2003 annual surveys in two reports: Summary Report - Official Time for Representational Activities, Fiscal Year 2002 and Official Time Usage in the Federal Government, Fiscal Year 2003. In FY 2004, we refined and expanded the reporting requirements by asking agencies to report official time hours in four categories of use: term negotiations, mid-term negotiations, dispute resolution, and general labor-management relations. See Appendix A for a description of each category.

OPM also is working to further enhance the accuracy of official time data and reduce the administrative burden on agencies by integrating official time tracking into the e-Payroll Initiative. With e-Payroll data collection, official time hours will be captured electronically through time and attendance records on a pay-period basis. Agencies have updated their internal data systems and began transitioning to time and attendance e-Payroll tracking in FY 2004. Full implementation, allowing us to collect and examine data on governmentwide official time usage on a near real-time basis, currently is scheduled for the FY 2007 reporting year.

OPM issued the call and guidance for reporting FY 2005 official time data in a February 8, 2006 memorandum to Federal departments and agencies. In addition to asking agencies to report the official time hours used by employee representatives within their organizations, they were also asked to report how those hours were used within the four pre-defined categories. This report provides the results of our fourth annual survey of Federal departments and agencies.

Fifty of 59 departments and agencies that have employees represented by unions responded to OPM's FY 2005 official time survey, resulting in a response rate of 85 percent. These responding agencies employ 1,051,372, or 99 percent of all Federal bargaining unit employees. The non - responsive agencies are small, employing a total of 5,860 bargaining unit employees, and the lack of their data, therefore, has a negligible impact on this governmentwide analysis. Responding agencies and departments reported 3,359,057 official time hours for FY 2005. This is the third consecutive year in which reported official time hours decreased, culminating in an overall 32.2 percent decrease since FY 2002.

Comparison of Hours Reported to Previous Fiscal Year

The FY 2005 survey responses show a 13.2 percent governmentwide decrease in reported official time from the 3,870,460 hours reported in FY 2004. The following table shows the hours reported by each agency in FYs 2004 and 2005 and the percentage of any change between the two years. The table shows wide variation among agencies, with changes from the previous year ranging from a decrease of 90.5 percent to increases of over 200 percent. Many of the agencies showing the widest variation from the previous year were of small size. Thus, modest numerical changes in reported hours translated into significant percentage changes for these agencies. Larger agencies reporting wide variations generally started or completed term negotiations during the reporting year. Mid-term negotiations also accounted for significant changes in the larger agencies' reported hours.

Official Time Rates

The official time rate indicates the number of official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee, which allows for meaningful comparisons of official time usage among agencies. The average FY 2005 governmentwide official time rate was 3.2 official time hours per bargaining unit employee, representing a 14.3 percent decrease in the official time rate as compared to the 13.2 percent decrease in total hours reported.

Categories

Agencies reported categories of official time for the first time in FY 2004, and this year's categorical reporting allows for greater analysis of the uses of official time and variations from year to year. The General Labor-Management Relations category once again accounted for the greatest share of governmentwide official time hours. Agencies reported 2,272,453 hours in this category, representing 67.7 percent of all reported official time hours.

Table 4. Official Time Categories - FY 2005

Term Negotiations

Mid-Term Negotiations

Dispute Resolution

General Labor-Management Relations

Other

Total Official Time Hours

Cabinet Departments

Agriculture

2,468

1,691

19,183

84,844

108,185

Commerce

2,654

442

6,978

7,217

17,290

Defense

29,686

23,938

374,164

133,334

561,122

Education

0

652

5,807

5,154

11,613

Energy

596

282

2,290

11,055

14,223

HHS

786

1,019

3,590

19,106

24,501

Homeland Security

10,359

5,535

61,510

21,991

99,395

HUD

0

22,521

8,184

40,241

70,946

Interior

1,189

763

2,506

15,719

20,176

Justice

18,452

2,473

12,061

69,189

102,173

Labor

524

2,761

13,308

31,215

29,120

76,928

State

0

826

3,503

5,163

9,492

Transportation

13,417

2,651

18,360

196,201

230,629

Treasury

4,986

15,891

23,448

659,477

703,802

Veterans Affairs

6,871

16,445

93,833

627,093

744,242

Major Agencies

AID

0

345

1,150

2,675

4,170

EPA

2,592

1,272

4,676

63,784

72,324

EEOC

0

725

1,447

12,234

14,405

FDIC

451

169

3,020

5,583

9,223

GSA

345

1,492

9,286

22,276

415

33,814

GPO

1,283

1,701

4,938

381

8,303

NASA

979

2,086

2,791

9,572

15,427

NARA

0

1,900

2,078

1,287

5,265

NRC

0

512

3,585

400

4,497

OPM

0

1,288

1,266

5,268

7,821

SEC

0

629

2,098

1,469

4,196

SBA

44

0

2,070

2,682

4,795

SSA

9,087

82,012

53,847

204,406

349,352

AID

0

345

1,150

2,675

4,170

All Other Agencies

1,394

8,462

6,968

13,440

30,748

Governmentwide

108,161

200,481

747,942

2,272,453

29,535

3,359,057

% of All Official Time Hours

3.2%

6.0%

22.3%

67.7%

0.9%

There were decreases in each of the reported categories as compared to FY 2004. For detailed information by agency, please refer to Appendix B.

Cost

Costs were estimated based on September 2005 wage data provided through the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF). We estimate each agency's official time wage costs by multiplying the reported official time hours by each agency's average bargaining unit employee hourly wage. FY 2005 estimated costs decreased 13 percent from the previous year, and they have decreased 25.8 percent since FY 2002. Note: Data for previous years indicated wage costs only. Data for FY 2004 and FY 2005 has been calculated to reflect total costs, including fringe benefits.1

Conclusion

The FY 2005 decline in use of official time hours and cost continues the trend observed in FY 2003 and FY 2004. The reduction in hours used has been significant enough to result in reduced costs despite general increases in employee wages.

OPM continues to refine official time data collection as agencies continue transitioning to automated tracking and reporting through their time and attendance systems. We expect that e-Payroll tracking and reporting will further enhance the accuracy of reported official time data while reducing the administrative burden of collecting that data. Full implementation, currently scheduled to begin with the FY 2007 reporting year, will allow us to collect and examine agency and governmentwide official time use on a near real-time basis.

Appendix A: Definitions and Terminology

Official Time means all time regardless of agency nomenclature granted to an employee by the agency to perform representational functions under 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 or by collective bargaining agreement when the employee would otherwise be in a duty status.

Official Time Reporting Categories – agencies are being asked to report four categories of official time use.

Term Negotiations – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used by union representatives to prepare for and negotiate a basic collective bargaining agreement or its successor.

Mid-Term Negotiations – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to bargain over issues raised during the life of a term agreement.

Dispute Resolution – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used to process grievances up to and including arbitrations and to process appeals of bargaining unit employees to the various administrative agencies such as the MSPB, FLRA and EEOC and, as necessary, to the courts.

General Labor – Management Relations – this category for reporting official time hours refers to time used for activities not included in the above three categories. Examples of such activities include: meetings between labor and management officials to discuss general conditions of employment, labor-management committee meetings, labor relations training for union representatives, and union participation in formal meetings and investigative interviews.

Representational Functions refers to activities undertaken by employees acting on behalf of the union or fulfilling the union's responsibility to represent bargaining unit employees in accordance with 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 or a collective bargaining agreement.

ON THIS PAGE

Official Time Usage in the Federal GovernmentFiscal Year 2004 Survey Responses

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) established an annual official time reporting requirement beginning in Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 to reinforce accountability on the part of both labor and management, emphasizing their shared responsibility to ensure official time is authorized and used appropriately. OPM issued the call and guidance for reporting FY 2004 official time data in a January 24, 2005 memorandum to Federal departments and agencies (see appendix_2004). In addition to asking agencies for the official time hours used by employee representatives within their organizations, we asked them for the first time to report official time hours in four categories for which the time was used. Agencies provided the requested information to OPM between March and June 2005. This report presents the data OPM received in response to our FY 2004 call and third annual official time survey.

Official Time: Definition and Statutory Context

Generally defined, official time is authorized and paid time off from assigned government duties to represent a union or its bargaining unit employees. The Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, at 5 U.S.C. chapter 71, authorizes official time in two broad categories.

First, employees have a statutory right to receive official time to negotiate collective bargaining agreements and participate in impasse proceedings. Official time in this category includes time spent bargaining over a term agreement to establish basic working conditions for unit employees for the life of that agreement. It can also include time spent negotiating during the life of the agreement, also known as mid-term bargaining, over management proposals that the existing term agreement does not address.

Second, the law permits agencies and unions to negotiate official time in connection with other labor-management activities, as long as the time is deemed reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest. Examples include time spent meeting with employees to discuss problems in the workplace, handling employee grievances, attending meetings called by the agency, and receiving training on labor relations topics. Unions cannot use official time for internal union business, such as organizing new members or campaigning for office, nor can they use it for partisan political activities.

OPM's Role

In 1976, the Civil Service Commission issued a memorandum instructing agencies on how to carry out their responsibilities for authorizing official time. It also directed agencies to establish recordkeeping systems to track official time. After finding that 18 of 26 bargaining units at four agencies had no records of official time usage, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report in 1979 recommending that OPM (formerly the Civil Service Commission) direct agencies to comply with recordkeeping requirements. GAO also recommended that OPM require agencies to submit annual reports on official time.

In response, OPM issued Federal Personnel Manual (FPM) Letter 711-161, requiring agencies to develop recordkeeping systems for official time no later than January 1, 1982. OPM did not, however, require agencies to report annually on official time as GAO had recommended. When OPM abolished the FPM in 1994, we also abolished all official time recordkeeping requirements.

In 1997, House Report 105-240 accompanying Public Law 105-61—FY 1998 Treasury, Postal Service & General Government Appropriations—instructed OPM to sample and report back to the Committee on Appropriations on governmentwide official time usage, looking at a six month period in FY 1998. OPM submitted its findings to the House Appropriations Committee in November 1998 in a report entitled, Official Time and Services Used by Unions Representing Federal Employees. During consideration of FY 2002 appropriations legislation, Congress again focused on official time use in the Federal government and instructed OPM to report FY 2002 usage to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees in H. Rept. 108-10, the Conference Report accompanying H.J. Res. 2—FY 2003 Consolidated Appropriations.

OPM moved to strengthen accountability and agency focus on tracking official time usage and established an annual official time reporting requirement in FY 2002. We reported the results and findings of our FY 2002 and FY 2003 annual surveys in two reports: Summary Report—Official Time for Representational Activities, Fiscal Year 2002 and Official Time Usage in the Federal Government, Fiscal Year 2003. For FY 2004, we refined and expanded the reporting requirements by asking agencies to report official time hours in four categories of use: term negotiations, mid-term negotiations, dispute resolution, and general labor-management relations.

In addition, OPM is working to enhance the accuracy of official time data and reduce the administrative burden on agencies by integrating official time tracking into the e-Payroll Initiative. The Initiative will consolidate payroll services and processes of 26 executive branch Federal pay providers to streamline and standardize policies and procedures, and it will enhance integration of agency payroll, human resources, and finance functions.

With e-Payroll data collection, official time hours will be captured electronically through time and attendance records on a pay-period basis. Some agencies have just begun the transition to the new reporting system. Given the current e-Payroll implementation schedule, we expect that our FY 2006 official time report will be partially, and our FY 2007 report fully, based on official time data collected through the automated official time tracking and reporting system. Upon full implementation, the payroll providers will electronically collect agency official time data through time and attendance records. The providers will then transfer the data into OPM data systems on a pay-period basis. Full implementation should allow us to collect and examine data on governmentwide official time usage on a near real-time basis.

Survey Terms and Data Elements

This section presents definitions and descriptions of the various survey terms and data elements used in tracking and analyzing Federal government official time usage.

Departments and Agencies.

OPM official time surveys look at all appropriated fund Federal executive departments and agencies that have bargaining unit employees represented by a union. OPM designates each Federal bargaining unit with a Bargaining Unit Status (BUS) code. We maintain BUS codes and bargaining unit profiles in our Labor Agreement Information Retrieval System (LAIRS), a searchable database containing current information on labor-management relations in the Federal government. LAIRS is a public system that may be accessed via the internet at http://www.opm.gov/lmr/lairs.asp. We use LAIRS to generate a current list of agencies with bargaining units to survey each year on official time usage. For the purpose of analysis, we have grouped the data in certain tables into three agency categories: cabinet departments, major agencies (1500+ bargaining unit employees), and all other agencies (less than 1500 bargaining unit employees).

Bargaining Unit and Bargaining Unit Employees.

The term bargaining unit designates a grouping of employees eligible to be represented by a union as certified by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) under criteria established in 5 U.S.C. § 7112. We used the LAIRS database to generate the FY 2004 bargaining unit employee numbers for this report. Some agencies reported bargaining unit employee numbers along with survey responses. We used the agency numbers in those cases, designating their source through footnotes in the tables presented in this report.

Official Time and Official Time Hours.

Official time means all paid time granted to an employee by their employing agency to perform union representational functions under 5 U.S.C. chapter 71, or under a collective bargaining agreement, when the employee would otherwise be in a duty status. This FY 2004 official time report presents information for the first time on categories of activities for which official time is used. The four reporting categories are:

Term Negotiations

This category for reporting official time hours refers to time used by union representatives to prepare for and negotiate a basic collective bargaining agreement or its successor, setting basic working conditions for bargaining unit employees for the life of the agreement.

Mid-Term Negotiations

This category refers to time used to bargain over issues raised during the life of a term agreement. Most mid-term bargaining takes place when the union seeks to negotiate over the procedures an agency will follow when exercising its management rights or the impact an agency’s decisions will have on bargaining unit employees.

Dispute Resolution

This category refers to time used to process grievances, up to and including arbitrations, and to process appeals of bargaining unit employees before various third parties such as the MSPB, FLRA, EEOC and the courts.

General Labor-Management Relations

This category for reporting official time hours refers to time used for activities not included in the above three categories. Examples of such activities include meetings between labor and management officials to discuss general conditions of employment, labor-management committee meetings, labor relations training for union representatives, and union participation in formal discussions and investigative interviews.

Official Time Rate.

This measure is derived by dividing reported official time hours by the number of bargaining unit employees. The official time rate shows how many official time hours are expended per bargaining unit employee and, therefore, allows for comparisons between departments and agencies.

Cost.

Except as indicated in table footnotes, we estimated agency official time costs using OPM’s Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) FY 2004 wage data. The CPDF data generates an average agency bargaining unit hourly wage that we multiplied by the number of reported official time hours to calculate agency official time costs. Some agencies reported official time costs with their survey responses, and we used the agency numbers in those cases.

Survey Responses and Findings

We asked 59 Federal departments and agencies with bargaining unit employees to report the number of official time hours used by Federal employee union representatives in FY 2004[1]. Fifty-four of those, encompassing 99.9 percent of all department and agency bargaining unit employees, responded to OPM’s FY 2004 official time survey. The responding 54 departments and agencies employ 1,043,570 bargaining unit employees. Five small agencies with only 1,001 total bargaining unit employees did not respond. The size of bargaining units in the responding agencies ranged from 405,995 bargaining unit employees in the Department of Defense to only 12 bargaining unit employees in the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Responding agencies and departments reported a total of 3,870,460 official time hours for FY 2004. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reported the greatest number— 772,403 hours. As shown in the table below, seven of the largest departments and agencies account for 81.0 percent of total bargaining unit employees and 84.8 percent of all reported official time hours.

Agencies with Largest Number of Bargaining Unit (BU) Employees - FY 2004

Comparison of Hours Reported to Previous Fiscal Year

FY 2004 official time hours decreased a substantial 18 percent from the 4,722,347 hours reported in FY 2003. The Department of Defense (DoD), which reported the greatest number of hours in previous years’ surveys, reported a significantly reduced 668,104 total number of hours in FY 2004. DoD’s single-year reduction of 531,315 hours, a 44.3 percent reduction from FY 2003, is a major contributing factor in the governmentwide 18 percent decrease in reported official time hours.

In its survey response, DoD discussed the complexities of updating its internal tracking system to capture four categories of official time use and suggested that this transition played a role in its reported reduction in official time hours. It did not complete full implementation of the updated system until the middle of FY 2004 and, as a result, expressed concerns about the reliability of the estimated full-year data reported. DoD’s substantial decrease represents a disproportionate 62.4 percent share of the governmentwide 851,887-hour decrease in official time usage. The reliability and statistical weight of its reported hours, therefore, has considerable implications in the analysis of governmentwide data and trends.

Several other agencies reported notable differences in their official time hours as compared to FY 2003, and many also cited transition issues as a potential contributing factor in the increases or decreases they were reporting. Like DoD, some of these agencies suggested that ongoing revisions to their tracking systems compromised data reliability to some degree. Many in this group expect an increase in FY 2005 reported hours as further system adjustments are made. On the other hand, some of the agencies reporting substantial fluctuations in their reported hours expressed confidence in newly established time and attendance record-based reporting systems. While several agencies expressed concerns about the reliability of their data due to transition issues, unlike the case with DoD, their impact on governmentwide statistics is marginal, since they represent the smallest bargaining units and reported official time hours.

In addition to systems transition issues, some agencies cited initial and/or ongoing negotiations as contributing factors to increases in their reported hours. Conversely, others attributed decreases to completion of bargaining in the previous year. A few of the agencies cited the absence of Federal employee union representation as a factor in notable decreases in their hours. In one case, for example, the on-site local union was put into trusteeship, and paid union headquarters’ staff provided representation.

The following table displays the official time hours reported by each agency in FYs 2003 and 2004 and the percentage of any change between those two years. The table reflects the wide variations reported by agencies, from a decrease of 86.7 percent to an increase of 134 percent in the number of official time hours used.

Official Time Rates

The average FY 2004 governmentwide official time rate was 3.7 official time hours per bargaining unit employee. Consistent with the reduction in total hours, this represents a governmentwide 18 percent decrease in the official time rate.

Ten agencies, encompassing 204,815 bargaining unit employees, had the highest official time rates—between 7.5 and 12.6 official time hours per bargaining unit employee. This group reported 1,734,694 official time hours, and while it represents 19.6 percent of all Federal bargaining unit employees, it accounts for 44.8 percent of all reported official time hours. Twenty-one agencies, encompassing 342,044 bargaining unit employees, reported an official time rate of between 2 and 5 hours per bargaining unit employee. These agencies employ 32.8 percent of all bargaining unit employees, and their total 1,354,557 official time hours represent 35 percent of all reported official time hours. Twenty-three agencies, encompassing 496,721 bargaining unit employees, reported rates from 0 to 2 hours per bargaining unit employee and a total of 781,209 official time hours. This group represents 47.6 percent of all bargaining unit employees and 20.9 percent of all reported official time hours. The table on the next page lists the per capita official time rates for each agency in FY 2004.

Categories

Agencies reported categories of official time for the first time in FY 2004. As noted above, several agencies identified transition issues related to setting up internal tracking systems to meet the new reporting requirement. A few other agencies reported transition issues related to preparing their systems for integration with the e-Payroll Initiations. The two transitions interrelate, since the system upgrades that allow categorical data collection also help prepare the systems for e-Payroll integration.

The General Labor-Management Relations category accounted for the greatest share of governmentwide official time hours. Overall, departments and agencies reported 2,535,372 hours in this category, which represents 65.5 percent of all reported hours. The 827,966 hours reported in the Dispute Resolution category make up 21.4 percent of total official time hours. Taken together, the Term and Mid-Term Negotiations categories represented only 12.9 percent of total hours, with 129,023 hours expended on term negotiations and 371,965 on mid-term negotiations. However, for those agencies involved in term and mid-term negotiations during the year, these reporting categories tended to dominate. The time reported by agencies and departments for FY 2004 in the four reporting categories is shown in the table on the next page.

Cost

We estimated agency official time costs using OPM’s Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) FY 2004 wage data except where we note otherwise in the tables provided in the Appendix. The CPDF data generates an average agency bargaining unit hourly wage that we multiplied by the number of reported official time hours to calculate agency official time costs. Some agencies reported official time costs with their survey responses, and we used the agency numbers in those cases. Governmentwide estimated costs decreased significantly in tandem with the reported decrease in total official time hours. While total hours declined by18 percent overall, costs declined 15.4 percent. Overall FY 2004 official time estimated costs were $108,122,004, as compared to $127,877,794 in FY 2003.The following table displays these cost figures by agency for FYs 2002, 2003, and 2004.

Conclusion

Departments and agencies reported a total of 3,870,460 official time hours in FY 2004. This represents a substantial 18.0 percent single-year decrease. The average governmentwide official time rate was 3.7 hours per bargaining unit employee, with agency rates ranging between zero and 12.6 hours per unit employee. Twenty-three agencies, accounting for 47.6 percent of all bargaining unit employees, reported rates from zero to two hours per bargaining unit employees. Agencies reported categories of official time for the first time in FY 2004, and several noted transition issues in setting up their internal tracking systems to meet the new reporting requirement. The greatest share of governmentwide official time hours—65.5 percent— was used for general labor-management relations activities, and the departments and agencies reported 2,535,372 hours in this category. Governmentwide estimated costs decreased significantly in tandem with the reported decrease in total official time hours. Estimated FY 2004 official time costs were $108,658,171 as compared to $127,877,794 in FY 2003.

Finally, some agencies expressed concerns about data reliability related to their tracking system redesign and the transitioning to categorical reporting. While efforts to update their systems may have impacted the integrity of the official time numbers reported for FY 2004, those same efforts should ensure a smoother transition in the upcoming integration with the e-Payroll Initiative and its automated time and attendance-based official time data collection system. When that is completed, the data reported should be more reliable and give agencies greater confidence that large changes in their official time usage from one year to the next are truly significant and not attributable to problems in their data collection and reporting systems.

[1] Tables of all agency and department FY 2004 survey responses, as well as FY 2002 and 2003 historical data, are provided in the Appendix.

[2] Two agencies were unable to categorize fully all their reported official time hours. However, the effect on our overall analysis is marginal, since these uncategorized hours represent an insubstantial portion of government-wide total official time hours.

[5] FY 2003 data continued to include the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), although the bargaining unit moved to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in that year. FY 2004 data reflects the move and excludes APHIS.

[6] FY 2003 bargaining unit numbers were provided by agency as part of their survey response.

[7] FY 2004 bargaining unit numbers were provided by agency as part of their survey response.

[8] FEMA was consolidated into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

[9] FY 2003 data continued to include the Federal Protective Service (FPS), although the bargaining unit moved to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in that year. FY 2004 data reflects the move and excludes FPS.

[10] FY 2004 bargaining unit numbers were provided by agency as part of their survey response. FY 2003 data did not include APHIS & FPS, which were reported with their legacy agencies: Agriculture and GSA respectively. Department was created in 2003.

MEMORANDUM FOR DEPARTMENT AND AGENCY HUMAN RESOURCE DIRECTORS

The attached December 8, 2004, memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies from Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kay Coles James served as the official call for reporting Fiscal Year 2004 union official time data. Director James also advised that specific guidance would be forthcoming under separate cover. This memorandum fulfills that commitment and transmits the guidance for reporting FY 2004 official time data.

OPM initiated annual official time data collection and reporting in 2002. We are now initiating our third annual survey of agencies with the attached guidance. The information and data will be consolidated into a single OPM report on official time usage in the Federal government in

FY 2004. We are asking agencies to submit the FY 2004 data to OPM no later than March 4, 2005.

There is one major change in this year’s information request as compared to previous years. Note that Director James notified departments and agencies of this change by memo on November 3, 2003 to allow sufficient time to adjust official time tracking systems. This year, we ask that official time hours be reported according to four categories, based on the activities for which the hours were used. The four reporting categories are: term negotiations, mid-term negotiations, dispute resolution, and general labor-relations activities. More detailed descriptions of the categories appear in the attached guidance.

Questions specific to this year’s data call or the attached reporting guidance should be directed to Paula Lucak of my staff at paula.lucak@opm.gov or 202-606-2172.

Let me take this opportunity to thank you for your consistent attention and response to our annual calls for official time data. If you have questions beyond the specifics of the official time guidance and report, please feel free to contact me at 202-606-2930.

Official Time Usage in the Federal Government Fiscal Year 2003 Survey Responses

A call for Fiscal Year 2003 official time data was forwarded to Federal departments and agencies on November 3, 2003. The memorandum asked agencies to report official time hours used by employee representatives within their organizations to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by January 30, 2004. Agencies had been informed the previous year, in a June 20, 2002 memorandum and call for FY 2002 official time data, that OPM would be surveying them on an annual basis with regard to official time usage.

Annual reporting was initiated to reinforce accountability on the part of both labor and management, emphasizing their shared responsibility to ensure that official time is authorized and used appropriately. Management and labor are expected to develop sensible arrangements for official time that meet the needs and expectations of agencies, employees, and the ultimate customers -- the American people.

Results and findings of the first annual official time survey were consolidated into a June 2003 Summary Report: Official Time for Representational Activities: Fiscal Year 2002. The report was also forwarded to House and Senate Appropriations Committees, responding to an intervening concomitant congressional official time reporting requirement.

This report presents information provided by Federal departments in response to our second annual call asking agencies to provide FY 2003 official time data.

Official Time: Definition and Statutory Context

Official time is generally defined as authorized, paid time off from assigned Government duties to represent a union or its bargaining unit employees. Under the Labor-Management Relations law: chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code: Congress allowed official time in two broad categories.

First, employees have a statutory right to receive official time to negotiate collective bargaining agreements and participate in impasse proceedings. Official time in this category can mean time spent bargaining with management over a term agreement that sets basic working conditions for unit employees for the life of that contract. It can also mean time spent negotiating during the life of the agreement, also known as mid-term bargaining. Most mid-term bargaining takes place when the union seeks to negotiate over the procedures an agency will follow when exercising its management rights or over the impact that an agency's decisions will have on bargaining unit employees.

Second, the law permits agencies and unions to negotiate official time in connection with other labor-management activities, as long as the time is deemed reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest. Examples include time spent meeting with employees to discuss problems in the workplace, handling employee grievances or formal administrative appeals, attending meetings called by the agency, and receiving training on labor relations topics. Official time in this category generally rises or falls depending on the nature and extent of labor-management activities, but in any case is restricted by the reasonableness standard imposed by the law.

Official time cannot be used for internal union business, such as organizing new members or campaigning for office, nor can it be used for partisan political activities.

OPM's Role

In 1976, the Civil Service Commission issued a memorandum instructing agencies on how to carry out their responsibilities for authorizing official time. Agencies were also directed to establish recordkeeping systems to track official time. After finding that 18 of 26 bargaining units at four agencies had no records of official time usage, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report in 1979 recommending that OPM (no longer the Civil Service Commission) direct agencies to comply with recordkeeping requirements. GAO also recommended that OPM require agencies to submit annual reports on official time.

In response, OPM issued Federal Personnel Manual letter 711-161, which required agencies to develop recordkeeping systems for official time no later than January 1, 1982. OPM did not, however, require agencies to report annually on official time as GAO had recommended. When the Federal Personnel Manual was abolished in 1994, all recordkeeping requirements for official time also were abolished.

In 1998, OPM was directed to prepare a report on official time usage for the House Committee on Appropriations. OPM was instructed to sample official time use for a six-month period. We collected and analyzed official time data from some 70 Federal agencies covering over 2,100 bargaining units. Our findings were submitted to the Appropriations Committee in November 1998 in a comprehensive report entitled Official Time and Services Used by Unions Representing Federal Employees.

As noted in the introduction to this report, OPM initiated an annual agency reporting cycle in a June 20, 2002 memorandum to agencies. That memorandum also served as a call for agencies to report FY 2002 official time data, which was consolidated and presented in OPM's June 2003 Summary Report: Official Time for Representational Activities: Fiscal Year 2002.

Reporting requirements were expanded in the November 3, 2003 memorandum that served as the call to agencies for FY 2003 official time data. Agencies were advised that the next reporting round will require them to report official time hours for FY 2004 broken down into four categories (term negotiations, mid-term negotiations, dispute resolution and general labor-relations), so as to allow for more comprehensive analysis and measurement of official time usage in the Federal Government. In addition, the November memorandum informed agencies of OPM's intent to have official time tracking integrated into the developing E-payroll initiative. Using E-payroll for tracking official time will lessen the administrative burden on agencies associated with OPM's annual call for official time data, and it will enhance the reliability of the data. Finally, the memorandum advised agencies of an OPM special study to look at the policies and procedures agencies follow in authorizing and tracking official time. That special study is being conducted by the Division for Human Capital Leadership & Merit Systems Accountability, with completion anticipated in tandem with this report.

FY 2003 Survey Findings

Sixty Federal departments and agencies were asked to report total official time hours used by employee representatives in FY 2003. Forty-six, encompassing 99 percent of the bargaining unit employees in the surveyed agencies, responded. The responding agencies include a total of 1,039,432 bargaining unit employees. Fourteen agencies with 9,751 bargaining unit employees did not respond. The size of bargaining units in responding agencies ranged from 405,995 in the Department of Defense to 38 bargaining unit employees in the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. (See Attachment 2)

Agencies reported a total of 4,758,147 official time hours for FY 2003. The Department of Defense reported the largest number of official time hours at 1,199,419 for the year. Its rate of official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee, a measure that allows for some comparison of agencies, fell in the lower range among responding agencies at 2.95 hours per bargaining unit employee.

Nine agencies, encompassing 207,999 bargaining unit employees, had rates of between 7.5 and nearly 17 official time hours per bargaining unit employee and reported a total of 1,991,151 official time hours: 42 percent of all reported official time hours. Twenty-two agencies, encompassing a total of 752,914 bargaining unit employees, reported a rate of between 2 and 5 hours per bargaining unit employee and 2,663,205 total official time hours: 56 percent of all reported official time hours. This group includes 72.4 percent of all bargaining unit employees in reporting agencies. Fifteen agencies, encompassing 78,519 bargaining unit employees, reported per bargaining employee rates from 0 to 2 hours and 103,791 official time hours.

Total reported official time hours and the rate of hours expended per bargaining unit employee remained stable between FY 2002 and FY 2003. In fact, there were decreases in both measures. Total official time hours decreased by 4 percent over the year, from 4,954,704 hours in FY 2002 to 4,758,147 hours in FY 2003. Official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee decreased Government-wide by 2.9 percent, from 4.71 hours per employee in FY 2002 to 4.58 hours in FY 2003.

The total estimated cost of official time to agencies also remained stable, increasing only 1.6 percent, from $126,570,125 in FY 2002 to $128,637,162 in FY 2003. Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) pay data, upon which our cost estimates rest, show a Government-wide 5.7 percent increase in average adjusted base pay over the time period. The increase in total cost, in spite of a decrease in total official time hours, can clearly be attributed to the concomitant increase in Federal pay.

Table 2 - Official Time Estimated Costs by Major Agency 2003, 2002 and 1998

DEPARTMENTS

Cost of Official Time 2003[10]

Cost of Official Time 2002[11]

Cost of Official Time 1998[12](annualized)

Agriculture

$3,589,696

$2,422,075

$3,471,000

Commerce

1,280,415

1,224,152

363,000

Defense

28,318,283

29,175,228

31,603,000

Education

473,939

502,092

701,000

Energy

807,612

575,142

632,000

HHS

1,363,185

1,468,778

3,128,000

Homeland Security

3,580,949

HUD[13]

896,653

621,160

1,188,000

Interior

615,342

704,707

1,177,000

Justice

2,195,055

3,678,413

2,647,000

Labor[13]

3,008,375

2,721,938

3,468,000

State

412,646

271,052

129,000

Transportation

27,725,746

29,559,382[14]

7,671,000

Treasury

18,517,651

19,628,768

20,855,000

VA

18,482,152

16,859,148

12,867,000

AGENCIES

EPA

1,895,742

1,881,187

1,260,000

EEOC

558,878

356,200

643,000

FDIC

378,635

538,288

N/A

GSA

1,171,535

1,090,906

471,000

GPO

239,635

305,675

1,143,000

NASA

452,640

496,766

752,000

NRC

215,182

203,901

602,000

OPM

142,778

174,568

394,000

SSA

10,389,034

10,267,187

11,255,000

All Other Agencies

1,925,408

1,843,412

1,877,000

TOTAL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

$128,637,162

$126,570,125

$108,297,000

While total official time hours remained stable over FY 2002, some agencies did experience notable changes. The Departments of Agriculture and Energy cited significant labor union involvement in A-76 competitive sourcing initiatives, realignments and re-organizations as a major source of increases in their official time hours.

Agencies losing bargaining units to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) generally did show a decrease in their official time hours, with the hours for the entire fiscal year for most of the units involved in the move being included in DHS's report. However, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Federal Protective Services (FPS) bargaining units' FY 2003 official time data continued to be included in their previous home agencies' reports, the Department of Agriculture and the General Services Administration, respectively.

Agencies with higher levels of union penetration did note it as a contributing factor in the magnitude of their official time hours, with the Department of Transportation continuing to report significant hours and the highest rate of official time hours expended per bargaining unit employee. Some agencies showing decreases in official time hours cited the completion of term bargaining as a factor in that decline.

While the anecdotal narratives a few of the agencies included in their official time reports did provide some insights into labor-management relations activities and factors that affected the agencies' official time usage, the narratives do not provide sufficient information for a more comprehensive and detailed analysis of official time usage in the Federal Government. With the upcoming requirement for more detailed categorical information, we anticipate being able to provide a more comprehensive analysis of official time usage in next year's FY 2004 official time report.

Summary

Government-wide official time hours, the rate of official time hours expended per bargaining employee, and estimated official time costs remained relatively stable between FY 2002 and 2003. Total hours decreased by 4 percent, and the rate of official time hours expended per bargaining unit decreased 2.9 percent. Total estimated costs increased by only 1.6 percent, which can easily be attributed to the Government-wide annual increase in pay. This relative stability in official time usage took place even in an environment of enormous challenges having a direct impact on bargaining unit employees and necessitating the involvement of employee union representatives. These challenges included: the integration of several major established bargaining units from their previous agency homes into the Department of Homeland Security, the collaborative design of a new DHS personnel system, increasing Government operations becoming subject to the A-76 contracting-out process, and a number of agency reorganizations and realignments.

Official Time Usage in the Federal Government, Fiscal Year 2003

Attachment 1

November 3, 2003

MEMORANDUM FOR HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

FROM: KAY COLES JAMES Director

SUBJECT: Official Time for Union-Related Activities

Background

On June 17, 2002, I issued a memorandum to agency and department heads describing my expectations when it comes to granting and using official Government time for union-related activities. I emphasized that labor and management officials are equally accountable to the taxpayer and have a shared responsibility to ensure that official time is authorized and used appropriately. To achieve greater accountability in this area, I instructed agencies to report to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) at the end of each fiscal year on the number of hours of official time used by employees to perform representational activities.

Discussed in more detail below are OPM's summary of official time reports for FY 2002; the official time information that agencies will be expected to submit for FY 2003; and the additional measures I plan to take to address official time practices in the Federal Government.

Summary Report for FY 2002

Agencies reported 4,765,848 hours of official time in FY 2002. This is an increase of 10 per cent since 1998, the last time that OPM collected official time data. The estimated cost of official time for FY 2002 is $114,280,000, an increase of 5.52 percent since 1998. The average amount of official time per bargaining unit employee in FY 2002 was 4.21 hours. In FY 1998, the average amount was 3.99 hours per employee.

For FY 2003, OPM is again asking agencies to report the number of hours of official time used by employees to perform union-related activities. Agencies must submit their reports to OPM by January 30, 2004. We have prepared the attached guidance to help you prepare your reports and to answer any questions you may have. See Attachment 2.

Collection of Official Time Data For FY 2004 and Beyond

As OPM's summary report makes clear, there has been a significant increase in both the number of hours of official time and the cost of such time since 1998. I believe that new measures are needed to ensure the level of accountability that the Administration and Congress insist upon and that the American people expect when it comes to taxpayer dollars. That is why OPM will be taking the following steps to address official time use in the Federal Government:

We will conduct a special study of the procedures used to request and grant official time for union representational activities and the way that official time hours and costs are reported. We will focus on the Government's largest bargaining units and evaluate the effectiveness of their official time practices. The study willyield crucial information about official time procedures and also help agencies better manage their resources and their labor-management relations programs. We expect to complete the study by March 2004.

As part of our e-Payroll initiative, OPM will establish reporting mechanisms for the use of official time for union representational purposes as part of every agency's payroll system. This will ensure that all unionized Federal agencies can record and track official time and assure appropriate accountability on the part of both labor and management.

For FY 2004 and beyond, agencies will be asked to report not only how many hours of official time are being used but what they are being used for. Such information will yield more useful data about official time practices across the Government. While we plan to issue more detailed reporting instructions for FY 2004 at a later date, here are the categories for which official time information will be sought:

Term Negotiations: official time used by union representatives to prepare for and negotiate a basic collective bargaining agreement or its successor.

Mid-Term Negotiations: official time used to bargain over issues raised during the life of a term agreement.

Dispute Resolution: official time used to process grievances up to and including arbitrations and to process appeals of bargaining unit employees to the various administrative agencies such as the MSPB, FLRA and EEOC and, as necessary, to the courts.

General Labor-Management Relations: official time used for: meetings between labor and management officials to discuss general conditions of employment, labor-management committee meetings, labor relations training for union representatives, and union participation in formal meetings and investigative interviews.

I have strongly supported the right of Federal employees to use official time to represent bargaining unit employees. At the same time, I have been clear that the right to official time carries with it a responsibility to use that time appropriately, efficiently, and when workload conditions permit. I believe the new initiatives outlined above will strengthen accountability to the taxpayer and substantially improve the tracking and reporting of official time.

If you have any questions, please contact Jeffrey Sumberg, Deputy Associate Director, Center for Workforce Relations and Accountability Policy, at 202-606-2639. He may also be reached via e-mail at jsumberg@opm.gov.

[3] This rate is adjusted from original 2002 report, as it appeared in Summary Report-Official Time for Union Representation FY 2002, to consider appropriated fund agency bargaining units only. Original 2002 rate was based on both appropriated and non-appropriated fund employees, even as 2002 official time hours reported were for appropriated fund employees only.

[4] 2003 data includes the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) which moved to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) within the fiscal year.

[7] Official time hours and bargaining unit employee numbers for APHIS and FPS bargaining units not included here. They are included in their previous agency homes, Agriculture and GSA respectively.

[8] FY 2002 official time hours adjusted upward from original 2002 report through agency amendment. The effect was to raise the agency's rate of official time used per bargaining unit employee.

[9] 2003 data includes Federal Protective Service (FPS) which moved to DHS within the fiscal year.

[10] Cost figures were estimated by agency, multiplying (1) December 2003 Central Personnel Data File average Agency bargaining unit employee annual salary divided by 2080 hours by (2) the number of official time hours in FY 2003.

[11] Cost figures were estimated by agency, multiplying (1) September 2002 Central Personnel Data File average Agency bargaining unit employee annual salary divided by 2080 hours by (2) the number of official time hours in FY 2002.

[12] In 1998, agencies reported the cost of official time for only the 6 month data collection period. 6 month 1998 data was doubled and adjusted for annual Federal pay raises using 3 percent annual growth to derive 12 month data for the year.

ON THIS PAGE

Official Time Usage in the Federal Government Fiscal Year 2002 Survey Responses

On June 17, 2002, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memorandum to agency and department heads describing her expectations when it comes to granting and using official time (see Appendix 1). She emphasized that labor and management are equally accountable to the taxpayer and have a shared responsibility to ensure that official time is authorized and used appropriately. She made it clear that she expects management and labor to develop sensible arrangements for official time that meet the needs and expectations of agencies, employees, and the ultimate customers -- the American people.

Believing that accountability to the American people begins with understanding the scope of the issue, the Director also instructed each agency and department to report to OPM by the end of each fiscal year on the number of hours of official time used by employees to perform representational activities. The first such report was due by October 31, 2002, covering FY 2002. OPM prepared guidance to assist agencies in compiling and reporting on official time.

In this summary, OPM's consolidates the official time reports from departments and agencies.

Background

Official time is generally defined as authorized, paid time off from assigned Government duties to represent a union or its bargaining unit employees. Under the Labor-Management Relations law-chapter 71 of title 5-Congress allowed official time in two broad categories (see Appendix 2).

First, employees have a statutory right to receive official time to negotiate collective bargaining agreements and participate in impasse proceedings. Official time in this category can mean time spent bargaining with management over a term agreement that sets basic working conditions for unit employees for the life of that contract. It can also mean time spent negotiating during the life of the agreement, also known as mid-term bargaining. Most mid-term bargaining takes place when the union seeks to negotiate over the procedures an agency will follow when exercising its management rights or over the impact that an agency's decisions will have on bargaining unit employees.

Second, the law permits agencies and unions to negotiate official time in connection with other labor-management activities, as long as the time is deemed reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest. Examples include time spent meeting with employees to discuss problems in the workplace, handling employee grievances or formal administrative appeals, attending meetings called by the agency, and receiving training on labor relations topics. Official time in this category generally rises or falls depending on the nature and extent of labor-management activities, but in any case is restricted by the reasonableness standard imposed by the law.

Official time cannot be used for internal union business, such as organizing new members or campaigning for office, nor can it be used for partisan political activities.

OPM'S Role

In 1976, the Civil Service Commission issued a memorandum instructing agencies on how to carry out their responsibilities for authorizing official time. Agencies were also directed to establish recordkeeping systems to track official time. After finding that 18 of 26 bargaining units at four agencies had no records of official time usage, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report in 1979 recommending that OPM (no longer the Civil Service Commission) direct agencies to comply with recordkeeping requirements. GAO also recommended that OPM require agencies to submit annual reports on official time.

In response, OPM issued Federal Personnel Manual letter 711-161, which required agencies to develop recordkeeping systems for official time no later than January 1, 1982. OPM did not, however, require agencies to report annually on official time as GAO had recommended. When the Federal Personnel Manual was abolished in 1994, all recordkeeping requirements for official time also were abolished.

In 1998, OPM was directed to prepare a report on official time usage for the House Committee on Appropriations. OPM was instructed to sample official time use for a six-month period. We collected and analyzed official time data from some 70 Federal agencies covering over 2,100 bargaining units. Our findings were submitted to the Appropriations Committee in November 1998 in a comprehensive report entitled Official Time and Services Used by Unions Representing Federal Employees.

FY 2002 Official Time Data

In response to the Director's June 2002 memorandum, agencies reported to OPM on the number of hours of official time used by employees in FY 2002 to perform representational activities. In comparison to the 1998 figures, the number of hours of official time increased 10.0 percent (4,332,608 to 4,765,848) (see table 1). The estimated cost of official time increased 5.52 percent ($108,297,000 to $114,280,000) (see table 2). In considering these figures, it is important to keep in mind the following:

Bargaining over term agreements requires considerable official time, but not all agencies and unions negotiate term agreements in the same year. Contracts typically expire after three years but only some are renegotiated. Others are continued by the parties for another fixed term without new negotiations. We do not know the extent of term bargaining activities in 2002.

Mid-term bargaining, another major source of official time, is largely driven by the degree to which agencies exercise their management rights. In any given year there may be reorganizations, downsizing, or workplace change initiatives that require more mid-term bargaining - and more official time - in comparison to other years. We do not know whether this was the case in 2002.

The number of grievances may lead to changes in official time as well. Official time use will typically rise with an increase in the number of grievances and fall as grievances and other workplace disputes decrease. However, if cooperative efforts are employed to reduce grievances and improve labor-management relations, the use of official time in connection with such cooperative initiatives may actually rise, at least in the early stages. We do not have information on grievances and dispute resolution efforts for 2002.

Table 1

The total number of hours of official time increased 10.0 percent since 1998, rising from 4,332,608 to 4,765,848 in FY 2002. The average amount of official time per bargaining unit employee in FY 2002 was 4.21 hours. In FY 1998, the average amount was 3.99 hours per employee.

Among major agencies, the Department of Transportation had by far the greatest increase in both the number of hours of official time (193,728 in 1998 to 612,397 in FY 2002) and the average number of hours per bargaining unit employee (5.7 to 13.9). This may be attributed to the high level of employee organizing that has occurred in recent years at the Federal Aviation Administration and the addition of over 10,000 bargaining unit employees since 1998. Other agencies showing significant increases in hours of official time since 1998 include Commerce (18,566 to 47,328); Justice (105,150 to 164,504); and Veterans Affairs (606,150 to 756,407).

Major agencies experiencing a significant decline in the number of hours of official time include Agriculture (164,482 to 127,188); Housing and Urban Development (37,340 to 20,062); and Interior (49,188 to 33,669). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) saw the largest decline in the use of official time per bargaining unit employee (10.87 to 5.9). EEOC attributes this decline to the improved relationship between labor and management, more open communications, and an increase in expertise on the part of employee representatives.

In 1998, agencies reported to OPM the cost of official time for the 6 month data collection period required by Congress. For purposes of comparing 1998 data to annual data for 2002, we doubled the 6 month 1998 data. Using this method, the cost of official time was estimated to be $114,280,000 for FY 2002, an increase of approximately 5.52 percent over FY 1998's estimate of $108,297,000.

4 Cost figures were estimated by Agency by multiplying (1) September 2002 Central Personnel Data File average Agency bargaining unit employee annual salary divided by 2080 hours by (2) the number of official time hours for 2002.

5 In 1998, Agencies reported to OPM the cost of official time for the 6 month data collection period. For purposes of comparing 1998 data to annual data for 2002, we doubled the 6 month 1998 data and adjusted for annual Federal pay raises using 3 percent annual growth.

Appendix 2 - Relevant US Code

Title 5 U.S. Code, Section 7131

§7131. Official Time

Any employee representing an exclusive representative in the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement under this chapter shall be authorized official time for such purposes, including attendance at impasse proceeding, during the time the employee otherwise would be in a duty status. The number of employees for whom official time is authorized under this subsection shall not exceed the number of individuals designated as representing the agency for such purposes.

Any activities performed by any employee relating to the internal business of a labor organization (including the solicitation of membership, elections of labor organization officials, and collection of dues) shall be performed during the time the employee is in a nonduty status

Except as provided in subsection (a) of this section, the Authority shall determine whether any employee participating for, or on behalf of, a labor organization in any phase of proceedings before the Authority shall be authorized official time for such purpose during the time the employee otherwise would be in a duty status.

Except as provided in the preceding subsections of this section

any employee representing an exclusive representative, or

in connection with any other matter covered by this chapter, any employee in an appropriate unit represented by an exclusive representative,

shall be granted official time in any amount the agency and the exclusive representative involved agree to be reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest.

Report to Congress on Official Time and Services by Unions Representing Federal Employees Fiscal Year 1998

Introduction

As required by the House of Representatives Report 105-240, to accompany H.R. 2378, the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations bill for FY 1998, the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has prepared this report to the House Committee on Appropriations on the use of official time and services by unions representing Federal employees, in accordance with specific agreements reached within each agency or provided for by law. This report includes the following information:

a description of both the benefits and disadvantages of official time;

a list of specific activities undertaken by Federal employees;

for the first six months of calendar year 1998:

total hours of official time that employees spent on such activities;

the number of employees who used official time for such activities;

the number of employees who spent 100 percent of their official time for such activities, the number who spent over 75 percent but less than 100 percent, and the number who spent over 50 percent but less than 75 percent;

the dollar value of official time, in terms of employee compensation, spent on such activities; and

the dollar value of Federally funded office space, equipment, telephone use and supplies provided to unions.

Scope of Report

This report covers only appropriated fund agencies with bargaining units and only those activities related to labor relations, such as those provided for by 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71, Executive Order 12871, and agency collective bargaining agreements. Agencies did not report activities under non-labor relations laws or regulations (e.g., civil rights laws, agency administrative grievance procedures).

Background

The Federal Labor-Management Relations Statute (5 U.S.C. Chapter 71) begins with findings and a statement of purpose indicating that Congress believes that a statutory labor relations program is in the public interest, contributes to the effective conduct of public business, and facilitates and encourages the amicable settlement of disputes between employees and their employers. In furtherance of this finding, the Statute requires that employee/union representatives be provided with official time. The use of official time by a Federal employee acting as a representative of a union representing Federal employees within a recognized bargaining unit is provided for by 5 U.S.C. ' 7131. It states:

Any employee representing an exclusive representative in the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement under this chapter shall be authorized official time for such purposes, including attendance at impasse proceeding, during the time the employee otherwise would be in a duty status. The number of employees for whom official time is authorized under this subsection shall not exceed the number of individuals designated as representing the agency for such purposes.

Any activities performed by any employee relating to the internal business of a labor organization (including the solicitation of membership, elections of labor organization officials, and collection of dues) shall be performed during the time the employee is in a non-duty status.

Except as provided in subsection (a) of this section, the Authority shall determine whether any employee participating for, or on behalf of, a labor organization in any phase of proceedings before the Authority shall be authorized official time for such purpose during the time the employee otherwise would be in a duty status.

Except as provided in the preceding subsections of this sectionC

any employee representing an exclusive representative, or

in connection with any other matter covered by this chapter, any employee in an appropriate unit represented by an exclusive representative, shall be granted official time in any amount the agency and the exclusive representative involved agree to be reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest.

Benefits of Official Time

Agencies were asked to describe the benefits of official time. The following is a summation of their comments on the benefits of official time to the Government. Virtually all agencies reported similar benefits.

Improves labor-management relations. Official time allows union officials to be available at convenient times during the workday to discuss workplace issues with agency managers. This ongoing dialogue allows the parties to develop a better understanding of each other's interests and concerns, thereby reducing the likelihood that disagreements will result in costly litigation. Also, the availability of union representatives at convenient times without loss of pay or leave allows the representative to be more willing to meet with management to discuss issues, thereby allowing management to act more expeditiously.

It allows for training of representatives on matters of mutual benefit. Such training is for union representatives and bargaining unit employees on collective bargaining agreement provisions, Governmentwide and agency regulations, 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71, safety issues, interest-based bargaining, and on alternative dispute resolution. Increasing a union representative's knowledge of issues such as these is of significant benefit to management. Well-trained union officials can often prevent problems from arising by informing employees of governing rules and regulations involving personnel policies or by knowing how to deal with particular issues in a constructive manner.

Dramatic improvements can occur in an agency's overall labor relations program when official time is used for labor-management cooperation and partnership efforts. An improved labor relations climate can have a significant impact on decreasing the use of agency resources to solve problems. For example, in fiscal year 1992, Department of the Army employees filed 2653 grievances. In 1997, official time used for constructive labor-management relations contributed to a decrease in grievances by 60%, a total of 1071 grievances. While the nurturing of such a relationship required additional official time, the parties have greatly reduced the use of other resources which would have been used to deal with these less constructive grievance activities.

Contributes to improved operations. Official time allows union officials and bargaining unit employees to participate in work groups, committees, and task forces which examine various ways to improve agency operations. These processes of participation provide for union involvement in decisionmaking that treats employees and their representatives as stakeholders in the agency's operations. Union officials and bargaining unit employees often contribute good ideas to these efforts which ultimately result in enhanced service to the public. For example, at the Red River Army Depot, a partnership between management and six unions has reduced the need for costly arbitration, increased productivity, and led to savings of $14.8 million in fiscal year (FY) 1994.

The United States Customs Service and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) formed a labor-management partnership in 1994. In 1997, they decided to address a critical mission-related issue: the decrease in the quantity of narcotics seized at Customs' ports of entry that had occurred over the past year. The results of this joint effort, Operation Brass Ring, have been dramatic. There has been an increase in the quantity of illegal narcotics and currency seized. For the period February 1 to May 31, 1998, 45,245.5 lbs. of cocaine were seized. During the same period in 1997, 37,125 lbs. were seized. This amounts to an increase of more than 8000 lbs. or 22%. Currency seizures also increased by 24%.

The Partnership Council at the Carl T. Hayden Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ, was successful in addressing problems involving compensation, turnover, position management, and staffing, as well as in fostering greater use of alternative dispute resolution techniques. With a 28.8% turnover rate among Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), the Medical Center had been experiencing serious losses of LPNs in its intensive care wards and the Nursing Home. With the active participation of the Partnership Council, the Center reduced the turnover ratio to 13.4%. In addition, the Partnership Council was instrumental in developing the Center's 108.5 full time employment staffing and position management plan for a new 25 million dollar ambulatory care addition to the Center. Predecisional involvement on the types of positions and staffing levels of the new facility paved the way for a smooth transition into this new facility, as evidenced by the fact that there were no grievances or unfair labor practices associated with the transition.

The use of official time for early or predecisional involvement by union representatives and bargaining unit employees can lead to quicker implementation of agency initiatives without potentially time-consuming and disruptive formal negotiations. A less protracted process contributes to the effective implementation of public policy.

Facilitates resolution of workplace disputes. Official time allows union officials to be available during the workday to intervene in any workplace disputes or problems that may arise, thereby creating a more positive workplace climate and minimizing disruption to agency operations. Swift resolution of workplace conflicts contributes to the effective and efficient accomplishment of public business.

Employee concerns and complaints are frequently resolved at informal stages when employee representatives can talk to employees, explore issues, determine facts, and explain considerations to employees and management officials. The ability to use official time during duty hours helps resolve complaints or potential grievances at the lowest level thereby avoiding the additional time and cost that is associated with the full grievance process or with costly litigation. This results in fewer formal grievances and appeals leading to monetary savings to the Government.

Has a positive impact on employee morale. Official time allows union officials to present the views of employees to agency managers, thereby facilitating greater employee involvement in agency operations. This has a positive impact on morale which may, in turn, result in reduced absenteeism and turnover, increased productivity, and improved customer service.

It provides employee representatives with time during the workday to review, consider, discuss, and react to management proposals on conditions of employment to achieve employee buy-in and to contribute ideas in developing and administering personnel programs. This involvement not only leads to improved morale for the bargaining unit employees, but can reduce the costs of potentially long drawn-out negotiations. At Fort McCoy, the Department of Army reports that labor and management dealt with the out- placement of employees affected by the downsizing of the post. The joint effort resulted in the successful placement of 80 employees, thereby saving relocation costs that would have been incurred in moving employees to a new organization.

Employees can discuss certain issues or concerns with union representatives that they may not be comfortable discussing with management when union representatives are more readily available because they are permitted to use duty time as official time. This allows the union official to serve as the liaison between employees and management, which can result in the reduction of negative feelings that may arise.

The use of official time during duty hours can create and maintain a healthy work environment which decreases the use of sick leave and worker's compensation benefits. Union representatives oftentimes provide management with information concerning health and safety issues, which, when corrected before they become claims for violations or accidents, improve the overall quality of work life.

Helps management to comply with its statutory obligations. Official time allows union officials to be available at convenient times for various activities related to collective bargaining, thereby allowing management to comply more easily with its statutory obligations in accordance with 5 U.S.C. ' 7117.

Official time allows employees who are officers and stewards to engage in representational functions necessary to meet the avowed purposes of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS). Section 7131 communicates the importance of official time in carrying out the purposes of the FSLMRS.

By allowing for union participation on safety committees, which is mutually beneficial to employees and management, it also assists the agency in complying with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and laws.

Disadvantages of Official Time

Agencies were asked to describe the disadvantages of official time. Many agencies reported no serious disadvantages or no disadvantages at all. The comments reported by the agencies are summarized as follows:

Has a negative impact on productivity. When union officials are on official time, they are not available to perform the duties associated with their regular positions. This can hamper the agency in accomplishing its mission, as certain assignments must either be delayed, covered by other employees, or accomplished through the use of overtime. The use of significant amounts of official time, which takes time away from the performance of assigned duties, may adversely affect an employee's ability to keep his or her technical skills current.

Places an administrative burden on managers. Administratively, the use of official time requires the processing of requests, the tracking and control of time used, and the juggling of assignments and schedules. Managers must also monitor the activities of union officials and representatives to ensure that official time is used for appropriate purposes. All of these activities place an administrative burden on those managers who supervise employees serving as union officials.

Managers must take the use of official time into consideration when making work assignments. This consideration can result in an unequal distribution of work among available personnel. Also, a union representative may be receiving compensation and benefits at a level different from the representational duties being performed.

Generates disagreements between managers and union officials. The current system of official time may generate disagreements (grievances or unfair labor practice charges ) over disapproval of requests, tracking or monitoring of official time, and whether official time has been requested or used for an appropriate reason.

Creates resentment with other employees. Some employees may resent union officials who spend a significant amount of their workday away from their normal duties. Official time does not always result in a visible work product, leading some employees to believe that official time is being abused.

Specific Activities

House Report 105-240 requested that OPM list the specific activities undertaken by Federal employees using official time. Agencies, in turn, reported the following union activities:

Consulting with management on changes in working conditions or conditions of employment, such as personnel policies.

Preparing for negotiations or representation of employees in meetings with management.

Meeting with employees concerning problems or potential problems in the workplace.

Representing employees at formal discussions with employers concerning any personnel policies, grievances, general conditions of employment, or any investigations that may result in disciplinary actions.

Reviewing employee personnel records.

Receiving health and safety training.

Performing health and safety reviews, Awalk arounds, and similar activities.

Visiting, phoning, and writing to elected representatives in support of or opposition to pending or desired legislation that would affect working conditions.

Ensuring and monitoring the administration of collective bargaining agreements.

Pursuing, processing, and resolving unfair labor practices.

Orienting new employees.

Participating in Federal Wage Surveys.

Participating in meetings on organizational changes.

Participating in meetings and activities to seek out organizational and service problems and develop solutions.

Traveling to meetings called by the employer or other employee representational duties.

Participating on joint union-management committees.

Total Amount and Dollar Value of Official Time for a Six Month Survey Period

The total amount of official time reported as used by employees for representational activities for the six month sample period was 2,171,774 hours. This time had a dollar value of $48,110,284. Official time by major agency is detailed in Table 1.

Number of Employees on Official Time for a Six Month Survey Period

A total of 23,965 Federal employees were reported as serving as representatives of Federal employee unions while on official time. The number of these employees working in a representational capacity 100 percent of the time was 946. The number of employees working in a representational capacity 75 percent or more of their time, but less than 100 percent was 912. The number of employees working in a representational capacity 50 percent or more of their time, but less than 75 percent was 1,152. Table 3 details the numbers of employees using official time by major agency.

Dollar Value of Office Space, Equipment, Telephone Use and Supplies Provided to Unions for a Six Month Survey Period

The dollar value of Federally funded office space reported as used by employees for representational activities was $6,561,744. The dollar value of Federally funded equipment reported was $1,485,473. The dollar value of Federally funded telephone use reported was $549,880. The dollar value of Federally funded supplies provided to unions was reported as $185,672. The total dollar value of all these Federally funded items was $8,782,769. These numbers are provided by major agency in Table 4.

Appendix

OPM Definitions

To assist in maintaining consistency across the Federal Government, OPM has defined Aofficial time to mean all time granted to an employee by the agency to perform representational functions under 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71, Executive Order 12871, or by collective bargaining agreement.

The term Arepresentational functions means those authorized labor relations activities undertaken by employees on behalf of other employees pursuant to such employees' right to representation under 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71, Executive Order 12871, or the terms of a collective bargaining agreement.

Official Time Categories

OPM requested that agencies report official time as belonging to one of three broad categories:

NEGOTIATIONS. Includes time used by union representatives for, or in preparation for: (1) negotiations over a basic agreement; (2) negotiations over the supplementation or renegotiation of that agreement or under a reopener provision in that agreement; and (3) negotiations occurring during the term of that agreement (i.e., mid-term bargaining). This category includes both interest-based and position-based negotiations. Use of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), and interest arbitration services are also included in this category.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION. Includes official time granted for employee representation functions in connection with such things as grievances, arbitrations, adverse actions, alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and other labor relations complaint and appellate processes. This category may also include union counseling of employees on problems, phone calls, emails, and meetings with management concerning employee complaints and problems that are pre-grievance or pre-complaint, but not part of any formal process.

GENERAL LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONSHIP. Includes official time authorized for representational functions in connection with all other activities not covered by the categories of Negotiations and Dispute Resolution. This category includes labor-management committee meetings or regulations dealing with conditions of employment, partnership activities where the union is represented, consultation and predecisional meetings, walk-around time for OSHA inspections, labor relations training for union representatives, and formal and Weingarten-type meetings under 5 U.S.C. ' 7114(a)(2) (A) and (B).

Dollar Value of Official Time

For purposes of completing the official time survey, agencies were instructed to determine the dollar value of official time by calculating the employee's total gross pay for the first 13 pay periods of calendar year 1998 and then multiplying that amount by a factor that represents the percentage of time spent in official time status. Generally, this official time factor would be determined by dividing the total hours of official time taken (or used) during the first 13 pay periods of calendar year 1998 by 1,040 hours (26 weeks times 40 hours per week).

For certain special categories of employees, the official time factor would be computed differently based on the number of hours in the employee's workweek for which certain fixed compensation is regularly received. For example, for a firefighter receiving standby duty premium pay for an uncommon tour of duty consisting of 72 hours per week, the denominator in the official time factor would be 1,872 (26 weeks times 72 hours per week) instead of 1,040 hours. Similarly, for an employee receiving administratively uncontrollable overtime (AUO) pay, total AUO hours worked during the 13 pay periods (or an appropriate estimate) would be added to 1,040 to determine the denominator in the official time factor.

Federally Funded Office Space

OPM interpreted this cost to cover only space which is set aside solely for the use of union activities for the first six months of calendar year 1998. Cost is determined by using actual data from agency facilities management. For agency-owned property, an agency may use the GSA average cost of square footage for that metropolitan area.

Equipment

OPM defined equipment to include any computers, printers, copy machines, fax machines, office furniture, or similar accouterments provided to and for the sole use of the union in the six months covered by this survey.

Telephone Use

Cost of telephone use is determined for those telephone and fax lines which are dedicated solely to union business for the six month survey period.

Supplies

The cost of supplies for the six month survey period provided to a union by the Government includes pencils, writing instruments, and paper. Mailing costs for contract or settlement activities were also to be considered on an actual cost basis when possible. In situations where precise information was unavailable, agencies were asked to give approximate costs based on the best available data or use standard statistical sampling methods.

Notes

Bargaining Unit data is from the January 1997 edition of the United States Office of Personnel Management's Union Recognition in the Federal Government.

The number of employees represented by bargaining units for all agencies except for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is from the January 1997 edition of Union Recognition in the Federal Government. HHS data was updated with the Official Time Survey.

Social Security Administration (SSA) did not report official time precisely in the manner in which it was requested. OPM interpretation was required to combine categories. This was due to differences in a long established system used by SSA which did not easily translate into the categories used by OPM. Although official time by category may not be accurate due to OPM extrapolation, the total number of official time hours used is exactly as reported. SSA categories are Bargaining, FLRA/MSPB proceedings, EEOC proceedings, Management-filed grievances, Travel Time, Union initiated grievances and other on-going labor management relations. OPM combined Bargaining and FLRA/MSPB into Negotiations, EEOC proceedings and Management-filed grievances into Dispute Resolution, and Travel Time, Union initiated grievances and other on-going labor management relations, and official time used for partnership activities into the third category, General Labor-Management Relationship.

Per the SSA submission: AEffective January of 1998 SSA began tracking partnership time separate and apart from official time. After considerable deliberations and a review by our General Counsel, we decided that it was not appropriate to consider partnership activities as official time. Because E.O. 12871 created a vastly distinct entity in partnership councils and the creation of partnership was clearly intended to be a departure from the traditional way that labor and management interact in Government, it was not appropriate to consider such activity as official time. OPM took the liberty of reporting this time as part of the General Labor-Management Relations category. Within the other agencies grouping, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported that some the data received from its field operations was inconsistent or incomplete. To facilitate the timely completion of this report, the EEOC reported estimates based upon historical knowledge in those instances of incomplete field data.

All other agencies are those agencies in which OPM received a response to the Official Time Survey but represent a smaller number of bargaining unit employees than individual agency listings. No responses were received from the National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, Export-Import Bank, International Boundary and Water Commission, Commission on Civil Rights, Trade and Development Agency, the National Transportation Safety Board, or the Library of Congress. The total number of employees represented by unions in these organizations is 7,888. The number of bargaining unit recognitions for these organizations is 10 recognitions.

Amounts have been rounded to the nearest dollar.

FDIC was unable to estimate a dollar value of official time usage due to a wide variety of factors including the impact of a pay banding system and Regional Pay Differentials.

The Department of Veterans Affairs believes that the numbers it has reported for office space and equipment may be inflated for the following reasons: (1) some field facilities based their figures on a yearly basis instead of six months and in the case of equipment provided, (2) some facilities counted equipment that was provided at a time other than the survey period.Ã‚ In addition, one union representative objected to the way the survey was collected from her facility and considers the data inaccurate.

This amount is included in the category Dollar Value of Federally Funded Equipment.